ARE PUBLIC HIGH-SCHOOL PRINCIPALS PAID ACCORDING TO THEIR PERFORMANCEAND WORKING-CONDITIONS

Using a nationwide sample of 292 public high schools taken from the Ad ministrator and Teachers Survey (ATS) of the High School and Beyond st udy, we find that the main determinants of principals' salaries are th e maximum teachers' salary, the principals' experience, and factors re lating to district size, wealth, and cost of living. We find evidence that principals are paid according to their working conditions, but no evidence that public high school principals are paid according to stu dent performance indicators. These results should be interpreted with caution. Better measures of performance are essential to advancing thi s line of research, as is longitudinal data. In addition to these meth odological concerns, environmental conditions determining principals' salaries may have changed. The ongoing ferment in public education tha t has occurred since the ATS was conducted in 1984 has]ed some school districts to attempt to implement various forms of performance based p ay. The impact of these changes on principals' salaries remains to be determined.