IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/edfpol/v15y2020i3p518-542.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact on Student Achievement of Replacing Principals in District of Columbia Public Schools

Author

Listed:
  • Elias Walsh

    (Mathematica Policy Research Princeton, NJ 08543)

  • Dallas Dotter

    (Mathematica Policy Research Oakland, CA 94612)

Abstract

The 2007 Public Education Reform Amendment Act led to 39 percent of the principals in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) being dismissed before the start of the 2008–09 school year, and additional principal exits over the next few years. We measure the impact of replacing these principals on schoolwide student achievement by measuring the changes in achievement that occurred when principals were replaced, and comparing these changes to achievement in comparison schools within DCPS that kept the same principal. We find that after a new principal's third year in a school, average schoolwide achievement increased by 4 percentile points (0.09 standard deviations) compared with how students in the school would have achieved had DCPS not replaced the previous principal. For students in grades 6 to 8, the gains were larger and statistically significant in both math and reading.

Suggested Citation

  • Elias Walsh & Dallas Dotter, 2020. "The Impact on Student Achievement of Replacing Principals in District of Columbia Public Schools," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 518-542, Summer.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:15:y:2020:i:3:p:518-542
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/edfp_a_00279
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    2. Elizabeth Dhuey & Justin Smith, 2018. "How school principals influence student learning," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 851-882, March.
    3. Ashenfelter, Orley C, 1978. "Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(1), pages 47-57, February.
    4. Louis S. Jacobson & Robert J. LaLonde & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1993. "Long-term earnings losses of high-seniority displaced workers," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 17(Nov), pages 2-20.
    5. Miller, Ashley, 2013. "Principal turnover and student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 60-72.
    6. Elizabeth Dhuey & Justin Smith, 2014. "How important are school principals in the production of student achievement?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(2), pages 634-663, May.
    7. Thomas S. Dee & James Wyckoff, 2015. "Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from IMPACT," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 267-297, March.
    8. Hanley Chiang & Stephen Lipscomb & Brian Gill, 2016. "Is School Value Added Indicative of Principal Quality?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(3), pages 283-309, Summer.
    9. Eric Isenberg & Elias Walsh, 2014. "Measuring Teacher Value Added in DC, 2012-2013 School Year," Mathematica Policy Research Reports b319ed849495477791cef8b8c, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Gregory F. Branch & Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 2012. "Estimating the Effect of Leaders on Public Sector Productivity: The Case of School Principals," NBER Working Papers 17803, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Coelli, Michael & Green, David A., 2012. "Leadership effects: school principals and student outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 92-109.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Renata Lemos & Karthik Muralidharan & Daniela Scur, 2024. "Personnel Management and School Productivity: Evidence from India," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(661), pages 2071-2100.
    2. Bruna Borges & Gabriel Leite & Ricardo Madeira & Luis Meloni, 2024. "Evaluating the impact of a principals’ professional development program on school management practices: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2024_03, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabrielle Wills, 2016. "Principal leadership changes in South Africa: Investigating their consequences for school performance," Working Papers 01/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Wills, Gabrielle, 2016. "Principal leadership changes and their consequences for school performance in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 108-124.
    3. Moira McCullough & Stephen Lipscomb & Hanley Chiang & Brian Gill, "undated". "Do Principals' Professional Practice Ratings Reflect Their Contributions to Student Achievement? Evidence from Pennsylvania's Framework for Leadership," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 23864abe140c4b658d1ba88d4, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Elizabeth Dhuey & Justin Smith, 2018. "How school principals influence student learning," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 851-882, March.
    5. Bartanen, Brendan & Husain, Aliza N. & Liebowitz, David D., 2024. "Rethinking principal effects on student outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    6. Mariesa Herrmann & Christine Ross, "undated". "Measuring Principals' Effectiveness: Results from New Jersey's First Year of Statewide Principal Evaluation," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 5f9c12f1d7404636aaf2e98e5, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Schiman, Jeffrey C., 2021. "The Information Content of Employee Awards," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Jason A. Grissom & Brendan Bartanen, 2019. "Principal Effectiveness and Principal Turnover," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(3), pages 355-382, Summer.
    9. Elias Walsh & Dallas Dotter, "undated". "The Impact of Replacing Principals on Student Achievement in DC Public Schools," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c84ecd86d13e4c82922c246d4, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Hanley Chiang & Stephen Lipscomb & Brian Gill, 2014. "Is School Value Added Indicative of Principal Quality?," Mathematica Policy Research Reports a11ab111ac3a497885e0a736f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    11. Hanley Chiang & Stephen Lipscomb & Brian Gill, 2016. "Is School Value Added Indicative of Principal Quality?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(3), pages 283-309, Summer.
    12. Mike Helal & Michael Coelli, 2016. "How Principals Affect Schools," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2016n18, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    13. Ingo E. Isphording & Ulf Zölitz, 2020. "The value of a peer," ECON - Working Papers 342, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    14. Simon Freyaldenhoven & Christian Hansen & Jorge Perez Perez & Jesse Shapiro, 2021. "Visualization, Identification, and stimation in the Linear Panel Event-Study Design," Working Papers 21-44, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    15. Regner, Hakan, 2002. "A nonexperimental evaluation of training programs for the unemployed in Sweden," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 187-206, April.
    16. Baker, Michael, 1997. "Growth-Rate Heterogeneity and the Covariance Structure of Life-Cycle Earnings," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(2), pages 338-375, April.
    17. Nicholas Bloom & Renata Lemos & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Does Management Matter in schools?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 647-674, May.
    18. Juliane Hennecke & Astrid Pape, 2022. "Suddenly a stay-at-home dad? Short- and long-term consequences of fathers’ job loss on time investment in the household," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 579-607, June.
    19. Blien, Uwe & Dauth, Wolfgang & Roth, Duncan H.W., 2021. "Occupational routine intensity and the costs of job loss: evidence from mass layoffs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Jepsen, Christopher & Montgomery, Mark, 2012. "Back to school: An application of human capital theory for mature workers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 168-178.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:15:y:2020:i:3:p:518-542. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.