Improving School Leadership Through Support,

In 2007, the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) received funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program to implement the Pittsburgh Urban Leadership System for Excellence (PULSE), a set of reforms designed to improve the quality of school leadership throughout the district. A major component of PULSE is the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program (PPIP), a system of support, performance-based evaluation, and compensation with two major components: (1) an annual opportunity for a permanent salary increase of up to $2,000 based primarily on principals' performance on a rubric that is administered by assistant superintendents and that measures practices in several areas and (2) an annual bonus of up to $10,000 based primarily on student achievement growth. The district also offered bonuses to principals who took positions in high-need schools. PPIP provided principals with several forms of support. This report examines implementation and outcomes from school years 2007-2008 through 2010-2011, with a focus on understanding how principals and other school staff have responded to the reforms, and on documenting the student achievement outcomes that accompanied program implementation. Book jacket.

Preface	p. iii
Figures	p. ix
Tables	p. xi
Summary	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xxv
Abbreviations	p. xxvii
Introduction	p. 1
What We Know About Relationships Between School Leadership and Student Achievement	p. 3
The Need for New Systems for Evaluating Principals	p. 6
Evaluation Questions	p. 8
Organization of This Report	p. 9
Data Sources and Analytic Approach	p. 11
Data Sources	p. 12
Principal Surveys	p. 12
Coach Surveys	p. 14
Teacher Survey	p. 15
Interviews with Building-Level Staff	p. 16
Interviews and Email Communications with District-Level Staff and External Consultants	p. 18
Reviews of Documentation	p. 18
Principals' Scores on the Administrators' Performance Standard Rubric	p. 19
Student Data	p. 19
Analytic Approach	p. 19
Principal, Coach, and Teacher Survey Data	p. 19
Factor Analysis	p. 20
Interviews with Building-Level Staff	p. 20
District Interviews and Document Review	p. 21
Rubric, Achievement, and Bonus Data	p. 21
Method for Linking and Jointly Analyzing Rubric and Achievement Data	p. 21
Limitations	p. 22
District Context and Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program Theory of Action	p. 23
District Context and Related Reforms	p. 23
Theory of Action Overview	p. 27
Interventions for Building Capacity	p. 29
Professional Development to Improve Leadership	p. 29
Evaluation and Feedback	p. 31
Mechanisms for Evaluation	p. 31
Mechanisms for Feedback: Assistant Superintendent Coaching	p. 33
Mechanisms for Feedback: Teaching and Learning Teams	p. 33
Incentives	p. 34
Salary Increment	p. 34
Achievement Bonus	p. 34
Determination of Bonus Award Amounts	p. 39
Impact on Principals	p. 41
Impact on Schools	p. 42
Impact on Classrooms and Students	p. 42
Capacity-Building Interventions	p. 43
Professional Development	p. 43
Evaluation and Feedback	p. 47
Incentives	p. 50
Summary of Key Findings	p. 55
Principals' Leadership Practices, Principals' Skills, and School- and Classroom-Level Responses to the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program	p. 57
Changes in Principals' Leadership Practices and Skills	p. 57
Principals' Practices	p. 57
Principals' Perceptions of Their Skills and Need for Support	p. 60
Other Staff Perceptions of Principals' Leadership	p. 60
Perceived Role of the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program	p. 63
School- and Classroom-Level Changes	p. 64
In-School Professional Development	p. 64
Incorporating Data into Instructional Leadership	p. 65
Teaching and Learning Teams	p. 66
Changes in Classrooms	p. 67
Summary	p. 69
Principals' Performance on Rubric and Achievement Measures	p. 71
Principals' Performance on the Evaluation Rubric	p. 71
Principals' Performance on the Achievement Bonus Measures	p. 79
Bonus Payments and Principals' Mobility	p. 85
Summary	p. 87
Student Achievement Trends	p. 89
Achievement Trends	p. 89
Addressing Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps	p. 95
Summary	p. 104
Key Findings and Recommendations	p. 105
Key Findings	p. 105
What Is the District's Theory of Action Regarding How the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program Is Expected to Promote Improved Student Outcomes?	p. 105
How Were the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program Capacity-Building Interventions Implemented, and How Have Principals Responded to Them?	p. 106
In What Ways Did Principals' Skills and Practices Change over the Course of the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program?	p. 108
What Conditions Changed at the School and Classroom Levels over the Course of the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program?	p. 108
How Did Principals Perform on the Rubric and Bonus Measures, and How Was Performance Related to Principal Mobility?	p. 109
How Did Student Achievement Change During the Course of the Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program, and How Did Racial and Socioeconomic Gaps Change?	p. 111
Recommendations	p. 112
Recommendations for Evaluation System and Measure Development	p. 112
Recommendations for Implementation	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 117
References	p. 119
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Improving School Leadership Through Support, Evaluation, and Incentives The Pittsburgh Principal Incentive Program

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