Vanderbilt University Peabody College of Education and Human Development

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Improving Principal Leadership

Principal leadership has been identified as having an indirect but major influence on student achievement. Moreover, it is one of the few influences that can be modified. An important strategy for modifying and energizing leadership is assessment, feedback, and subsequent action on performance (coaching).

Funded by the Institute of Educational Services within the U.S. Department of Education, Peabody College is engaged in a rigorous, multi-phase, randomized study of improving principal leadership through feedback and coaching. A feedback system that assesses and communicates leadership behaviors is a promising tool for developing and maintaining effective leadership in a cost effective manner. Coaching has the potential to direct the motivation provided by the feedback in a productive manner. The study consists of four phases spanning four years.

In the Peabody study, 60 elementary school principals representing approximately 1200 teachers in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System will be randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. The experimental group will receive a feedback report every two months based on teacher ratings of their leadership. In the following academic year principal coaching will be added to the model. The experimental group will continue to receive bimonthly feedback while also receiving coaching. In the second academic year, the control group from the first year will receive feedback without coaching. This design will allow Peabody to study within groups as well as between groups. The key measures of outcome are changes in principal leadership and student achievement.

What elementary schools are participating?

What is the process?

Who from Peabody College is involved?

References

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