WHAT MAKES A GOOD PRINCIPAL - HOW TEACHERS ASSESS THE PERFORMANCE OF PRINCIPALS

This paper examines the performance of public school principals as rat ed by teachers they supervise. Work experience outside of education do es not raise performance ratings, nor does administrative experience a t the current or previous schools. The only experience which is associ ated with higher performance ratings is teaching experience. Graduate training, even in school administration, is generally associated with lower performance ratings, a finding which raises questions about the licensing requirements for principals in most states. Finally, teacher s tend to rate a principal of their own race or sex higher, an effect most pronounced for women, who consistently give male principals lower evaluations.