Report

Developing Leaders: The Importance - and the Challenges - of Evaluating Principal Preparation Programs

This research on principal preparation highlights the link between principal preparation programs and student outcomes in five large districts across the United States.

Principals are second only to classroom teachers when it comes to impact on student learning. Despite clear research showing the impact that principals can have, more rigorous research and information to guide schools and districts on how to prepare, recruit, support, and retain the most effective school leaders is needed.

The Bush Institute’s new studies look at effective ways to evaluate principal preparation and describe policies to get, support, and keep great principals.

The research on principal preparation, the result of a two-year study with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), highlights the link between principal preparation programs and student outcomes in five large districts across the United States.