Principals' Job Reviews Getting a Fresh Look

Highly effective principals are mentioned in the same breath with good teachers as an essential ingredient for improving schools.

But when it comes to developing tools that can determine whether school leaders possess the qualities that promote academic growth, safe schools, and teacher satisfaction, that effort has been overshadowed by the intense debate over how best to measure the performance of teachers. While policymakers engage in pointed discussions about how—and whether—to incorporate sophisticated measures of student achievement into teacher performance reviews, the conversation around evaluating principals has been less vociferous.

The balance, however, is...