Positive Disruption? Meritocratic Principal Selection and Student Achievement

Principals are the gatekeepers of education and can influence student achievement through management practises. However in many countries discretionary staff appointments, corruption and inefficiency undermine the quality of management and education. Meritocratic selection in public service has been advocated as a tool to elevate management quality. We analyse the short-term impact of the 2016 introduction of merit-based selection for Romanian state school principals on students school-leaving test scores. Employing a staggered difference-in-difference strategy, we study the impact of competitively selected principals (compared to those appointed), and the impact of new principals (compared to principals who retain their position). The average treatment effect is small and insignificant immediately after the policy, with some evidence that new principals begin to improve outcomes two years on, particularly in schools with average historical performance. Since principals have limited management autonomy, this improvement is likely due to strategic selection of students into sitting the exam, but additional survey data also suggests the policy selects principals that are more motivated for the job. The evidence points to benefits and limitations of merit based recruitment policies in education.