Preparing School Leaders for Success: Evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program, 2012-2017
Gates, Susan M.; Baird, Matthew D.; Doss, Christopher Joseph; Hamilton, Laura S.; Opper, Isaac M.; Master, Benjamin K.; Tuma, Andrea Prado; Vuollo, Mirka; Zaber, Melanie A. (2019). RAND Corporation. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED605722
-
examining240Schools, gradesK-8
Department-funded evaluation
Review Details
Reviewed: April 2022
- Department-funded evaluation (findings for New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program)
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a cluster quasi-experimental design that provides evidence of effects on clusters by demonstrating that the analytic sample of individuals is representative of the clusters and satisfying the baseline equivalence requirement for the clusters in the analytic intervention and comparison groups.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
State test scores Math |
New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program vs. Business as usual |
3 Years |
Grades 3-8;
|
0.09 |
0.00 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
State test scores English Language Arts (ELA) |
New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program vs. Business as usual |
3 Years |
Grades 3-8;
|
0.06 |
0.00 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Principal Retention |
New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program vs. Business as usual |
2 Years |
New Principals (less than one year tenure);
|
91.92 |
83.26 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Attendance |
New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program vs. Business as usual |
3 Years |
Grades K-8;
|
0.00 |
0.40 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
-
Suburban, Urban
-
- B
- A
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- I
- H
- J
- K
- L
- P
- M
- N
- O
- Q
- R
- S
- V
- U
- T
- W
- X
- Z
- Y
- a
- h
- i
- b
- d
- e
- f
- c
- g
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- x
- w
- y
California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee
Study Details
Setting
The study examines graduates of the Aspiring Principals program who were placed as principals in the school years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. These principals were part of several public school districts: Baltimore City Public Schools (Maryland), Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (North Carolina), Chicago Public Schools (Illinois), District of Columbia Public Schools (District of Columbia) the New York City Department of Education (New York), Oakland Unified School District (California), Prince George’s County Public Schools (Maryland), and Shelby County Schools (Tennessee).
Study sample
School-level and student characteristics are not reported. Of the principals that completed the Aspiring Principals program, 37% were White, 48% were Black, and 8% were Hispanic; 72% were female.
Intervention Group
The New Leaders Leadership Development Program targets talented teachers, instructional coaches, assistant principals, and other educators who may become promising future principals. The program consists of four components: 1) the Emerging Leaders Program, 2) National Recruitment and Admissions, 3) the Aspiring Principals Program, and 4) the Principal Institute. The Emerging Leaders Program and National Recruitment and Admissions are two different pathways for admission into the Aspiring Principals Program. The Aspiring Principals Program is a one-year residency program, similar to a medical school model. Once participants graduate from the Aspiring Principals Program and are placed in a principal position, they receive one to two years of support through the Principal Institute. Overall, the program includes experiential learning and mentoring, in addition to direct training through in-person sessions and webinars. The program components are designed to collectively lead to the placement of effective school leaders in principal positions who are able to improve school climate and teacher effectiveness, leading to improvement in reading and math achievement among students in grades K-12.
Comparison Group
Principals in the comparison condition were novice principals that had not completed the Aspiring Principals Program. These principals received the standard support available to new principals from the school district and/or their administrative credential program.
Support for implementation
No implementation support was described separate from the intervention components, which included one to two years of support for novice principals through the Principal Institute.
Additional Sources
In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.
-
Gates, Susan M.; Baird, Matthew D.; Doss, Christopher J.; Hamilton, Laura S.; Opper, Isaac M.; Master, Benjamin K.; Tuma, Andrea Prado; Vuolla, Mirka; Zabar, Melanie A. (2019). Preparing School Leaders for Success: Evaluation of New Leaders' Aspiring Principals Program, 2012-2017: Appendixes. RAND Corporation.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).