The carrot and the stick: The role of headteachers in school effectiveness

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of principals/headteachers in the effectiveness of schools, and aims to contribute to the growing body of literature in this area. The research focuses on a developing country and uses panel data taken from the Young Lives Program in Peru and its School Survey. Educational production functions are used to estimate the impact of principals on the scores of fourth-grade students in mathematics and language. The findings of this study support the international evidence on the importance of principals in school effectiveness, especially in terms of supervision and monitoring.