A new working paper out from Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) seeks to find out which characteristics of school leadership are salient in enhancing student achievement. According to the results of the meta-analysis involving 70 studies, having an effective principal has an effect size of .25 standard deviations--which translates into the difference between a score in 50th percentile in mean student achievement to a score at the 60th percentile. Although the finding that student achievement can be increased through better management is encouraging, it's hard to figure out how the specifics of the study are likely to be helpful. The study identifies 21 leadership characteristics of an effective principal, such as 'discipline' and 'focus.' Who would ever set out to hire a principal that was known to be undisciplined or lacking focus?