How Do Principals Affect Students and School?

In the past two decades, the role of the principal has garnered greater attention as education policy has focused increasingly on the importance of the adoption of standards for students learning, having every student succeed, and the challenge of achieving equity.

At the same time, the evidence base on principals has become markedly stronger, bolstered by state-level data systems and new methods. Learn about the findings from a new, comprehensive study commissioned by The Wallace Foundation – How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research – that offers more precise evidence on the impact of principals on student achievement and other factors, and identifies three skills and four behaviors by principals that are linked to benefits for students and schools.