This study investigated the national status of principal performance evaluation including type of system, conditions of implementation, and effectiveness as perceived by principals and their evaluators and the relationship among these characteristics and the size and socioeconomic status of school and district. An instrument based on current models of principal evaluation and organizational structure and change was developed to gather data from high school principals, elementary principals, and their evaluators. A sample of 682 districts was randomly selected from a population of 9,760 school districts in 41 states following stratification by size and region, with a return rate of 62%;Frequent productive site visits, conferences, and quality feedback and direct evaluation of instructional leadership do not exist in many school districts; evaluators reported more frequent occurrences than principals. Forty-six percent of the systems had been in place less than five years; 25% for 10 years or more. Merit pay was tied to evaluation in 19% of the districts. Principals and evaluators believe that principal evaluation can impact student outcomes but indicated that this is not true in their district;Regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between type of evaluation and effectiveness, and conditions of evaluation and effectiveness. Research-based components of principal evaluation contributing to effectiveness of the evaluation system at the.05 level of significance were as follows: evaluators--direct evaluation of instructional leadership and quality feedback contributed 41% of the variance; high school and elementary principals--no relationship was found between type of evaluation and perceived effectiveness;Conditions of evaluation contributing 26% of the variance in effectiveness as perceived by evaluators of principals were degree of decentralization, span of control, and number of years in place. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship of size and socioeconomic status of district to type, conditions, and effectiveness of principal evaluation. Correlations are statistically significant but lack sufficient magnitude to be of practical significance. The exception is the correlation of span of control to size of high school (.509) and size of district (.550).