Team
The project personnel are highly established and experienced researchers with a successful track record in field research and expertise in principal effectiveness and school improvement. The faculty involved in this proposed project have collective expertise in value-added student achievement, principal and teacher effectiveness, pay for performance, school improvement and scaling up, professional development, educator labor markets, and teacher work lives. They have a history of collaboration on other large projects, working at the school, district, and state level with practitioners and technical experts, and have experience working with the other organizations with which our project intersects in the 8 systems.
Research Team
Ellen Goldring 
Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Education Policy and Leadership, and Chair, Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations, Peabody College at Vanderbilt University
Her research interests focus on the intersection of education policy and school improvement with particular emphases on school organization and education leadership. She is the principal investigator of the Gate’s Foundation Project, The Study of Principal Use of Teacher Effectiveness Data for Talent Management Decisions. Her areas of focus include principal and central/home office data use for evaluation, and for principal and teacher support and professional development.
Jason A. Grissom
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University; Faculty Director, Tennessee Education Research Alliance
Jason A. Grissom studies the policy, politics, and governance dimensions of K-12 education. He is particularly interested in identifying the impacts of school and district leaders on teacher and student outcomes. His focus areas in this work include teacher assignment and central office supports for principal data use.
Marisa A. Cannata
Senior Research Associate at Vanderbilt University
Her research interests focus on teacher career decisions and labor market, school choice, scaling up high school reform, and teacher work experiences. With her expertise in teacher hiring, Dr. Cannata led the analysis around how principals use effectiveness data for hiring decisions.
Timothy A. Drake
Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
His research focuses on the ways in which school leaders contribute to school improvement and student achievement. His recent work examines how principals’ use teacher effectiveness data to inform their human capital decision making; principals’ support of teacher teams for instructional improvement; and how school leaders use data systems to access information on student performance and teacher effectiveness.
Mollie Rubin
Research Associate, Dept. of Leadership, Policy & Organizations
Her areas of focus on the project include teacher assignment and leadership.
Christine Neumerski
Research Specialist, University of Michigan
Her research interests focus on improving instruction in high-poverty, urban schools; instructional leadership; and school reform. Her focus areas on this project include the changing role of the principal in the new teacher evaluation systems.
Patrick Schuermann
Research Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Public Policy at Vanderbilt University
His areas of focus on the project include compensation, and supports for principals in the use of teacher effectiveness data for talent management decisions.