Evaluation of the School Administration Manager Project

The School Administration Manager (SAM) project, supported by The Wallace Foundation as part of its education initiative, focuses on changing the conditions in schools that prevent principals from devoting more time to instructional leadership. In schools participating in the National SAM Project, principals have made a commitment to increase the amount of time they spent on tasks related to instructional leadership, and each school has hired or designated a SAM to support and assist the principal in making this change. Policy Studies Associates (PSA) evaluated the implementation, early effects, and diffusion of the SAM innovation around the country during 2008 and early 2009. The evaluation documented and analyzed the essential properties of the SAM innovation; the dimensions of variation found across schools; the organizational and individual incentives for adoption, implementation, and adaptation in particular contexts; and the outcomes for individual principals, SAMs, and schools. The findings suggest that one way of implementing the project--designating a SAM but delegating few new tasks to him or her--has not resulted in changing principals' time use in the desired ways. Other school-level consequences that should be assessed in later years will include whether SAMs stay on the job over time, and how changes in principals' behavior affect teaching and learning in their schools. Still other consequences will be seen at the policy and system level, including whether districts support the project financially. Each of these types of consequences deserves systematic monitoring and should inform further revision and specification of the SAM innovation's essential elements. In this way, the project can continue to build on its notable accomplishments in helping principals change their use of time. (Contains 34 exhibits and 10 footnotes.) [This paper was produced for The Wallace Foundation.]