ABSTRACT
In the past decade, nearly all states have revised their principal evaluation policies, prompting school districts across the country to rethink how they are evaluating school leaders. The new principal evaluation systems that emerge out of these policy reforms often couple increased accountability with a greater emphasis on development in an effort to spur continuous improvement in school leadership practices. However, there is limited literature documenting these major shifts in principal evaluation and the potential they hold for leadership improvement. This chapter describes current policies, briefly outlines the mechanisms through which principal evaluation might affect principal quality and other key outcomes, highlights key findings from research on principal evaluation, and offers promising lines for future research.
