Managing to Learn

To improve public services, public sector managers must encourage reticent civil servants to enact effective reforms. We show through a randomized controlled trial that school principals, i.e., school mangers, can act as leaders to improve Instructional Management (0.3SD) and student learning (0.11SD) with existing systems and personnel. Additional management training improved People Management but not student test scores. Managerial enhancements and student test score gains persisted. Our findings resolve conflicting results regarding the role of management in public sector productivity and demonstrate how public sector managers can signal reform effectiveness through personal commitment, acting as leaders