Research demonstrates the importance of principal effectiveness for school performance and the potentially negative effects of principal turnover. However, we have limited understanding of the factors that lead principals to leave their schools or about the relative effectiveness of those who stay and those who turn over. We investigate the…

Studies link principal effectiveness to lower average rates of teacher turnover. However, principals need not target retention efforts equally to all teachers. Instead, strong principals may seek to strategically influence the composition of their school's teaching force by retaining high performers and not retaining lower performers. We…

The quality of a school's leadership is a key determinant of its performance. Research links effective leadership to a variety of school outcomes, including more positive school learning climates (Sebastian & Allensworth, 2012), lower rates of teacher turnover (Boyd et al., 2011; Grissom & Bartanen, 2018; Ladd, 2011), and greater parental…

Nationally, 18% of principals turn over each year, yet research has not yet credibly established the effects of this turnover on student and teacher outcomes. Using statewide data from Missouri and Tennessee, we employ a difference-in-differences model with a matched comparison group to estimate arguably causal effects. We find that principal…

Numerous studies document the inequitable distribution of teacher quality across schools. We focus instead on the distribution of principal quality, examining how multiple proxies for quality, including experience, teachers' survey assessments of leaders, and rubric-based practice ratings assigned by principals' supervisors, vary by measures of…