Does Investment in High-Quality Preservice Principal Training Pay Off? Assessing Outcomes of the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership in Tennessee

Abstract

In response to growing demand for well-prepared school principals across the state, Tennessee created the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership (GASL) to provide innovative training opportunities for assistant principals (APs) identified by their districts as promising potential future principals. Once selected through a competitive process, participants received professional development opportunities over a full year as part of a GASL cohort. This study documents both the characteristics of those chosen as GASL APs and participants’ outcomes following their participation. We compare GASL participants to two plausible comparison groups: all APs in the districts from which GASL participants were drawn, and APs who applied for GASL but were not selected

Key Findings

1. GASL participants generally were representative of APs in the state with respect to observable characteristics, though they are slightly less experienced, less likely to be Black, and had higher practice ratings from the state evaluation system.
2. GASL completers were much more likely to become principals than both sets of comparison principals, but estimates of the program’s impacts on their leadership practice ratings once becoming a principal are too imprecise to draw meaningful conclusions.

Suggested Citation

Santelli, F. A., & Grissom, J. A. (2025). Does Investment in High-Quality Preservice Principal Training Pay Off? Assessing Outcomes of the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership in Tennessee. Peabody Journal of Education, 100(2), 231–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2025.2483143