NASSP Bulletin 95(3) 212–236 © 2011 NASSP Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0192636511415254 http://bul.sagepub.com 415254BUL 95 3 10.1177/01926365 11415254Owings et al.NASSP Bulletin 1 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA Corresponding Author: William A. Owings, Old Dominion University, Darden College of Education, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA Email: wowings@odu.edu Troops to Teachers as School Administrators: A National Study of Principal Quality William A. Owings 1 , Leslie S. Kaplan 1 , and Shanan Chappell 1 Abstract The United States has a scarcity of capable principals ready to successfully lead schools in an era of outcome-based accountability. This is especially true in high-poverty, high- minority schools. Policy makers welcome opening the principal pipeline to untraditional leaders. Research finds that teachers who have entered education through Troops to Teachers funding make a measurable impact on student learning and tend to work in high-poverty schools. This study suggests that they also may be highly effective principals. Keywords Troops to Teachers, instructional leadership, high-poverty schools, ISLLC standards Introduction Three decades of research provides ample evidence that principals’ successful leader- ship positively affects school outcomes including student achievement (Brewer, 1993; Brookover, Beady, Flood, Schweitzer, & Wisenbaker, 1979; Eberts & Stone, 1988; Edmonds, 1979; Harris, Rutledge, Ingle, & Thompson, 2006; Jacob & Lefgren, 2005; Knapp, Copland, Plecki, & Portin, 2006; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Leithwood & Montgomery, 1982). At the same time, studies find a scarcity of capable school leaders, especially in high-poverty, high-minority schools (Cusick, 2003; Horng, Kalagrides, & Loeb, 2009; Mitgang, 2003; Pijanowski & Brady, 2009; Roza, 2003; Whitaker, 2001). Urban schools and schools with lower performing students are more likely to have principals at OLD DOMINION UNIV LIBRARY on January 23, 2015 bul.sagepub.com Downloaded from