School Leaders Matter: Measuring the Impact of Effective Heads of Schools

It is widely believed that a good school leader (principal, rector or headmaster) is the key to a successful school. Yet until very recently there was little rigorous research demonstrating the importance of school leader quality for student outcomes, much less the specific practices that cause some heads to be more successful than others. A study by Eric A. Hanushek together with Gregory F. Branch and Steven G. Rivkin provides new evidence on the importance of school leadership by estimating individual school leaders' contributions to growth in student achievement. Their results indicate that highly effective school heads raise the achievement of a typical student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a single school year; ineffective school leaders lower achievement by the same amount.

Eric Hanushek is most widely known for his analysis of the determinants of student achievement. His early analyses documented the inconsistent relationship between school resources and student outcomes. The overall finding was initially very controversial and led to many subsequent studies. Currently, available research leads to the widely accepted conclusion that how money is spent is much more important than how much money is spent.

Mr Hanushek will be visiting CESifo from 11 to 18 November. No stranger to CESifo, he is both research professor at the Ifo Center for the Economics of Education as well as director for the Economics of Education Area of the CESifo Research Network. He has also served on Ifo's Scientific Advisory Council. His frequent visits to CESifo are aimed at increasing the interaction among researchers in the economics of education on both sides of the Atlantic.

Eric Hanushek is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He received his PhD in economics from MIT and is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.