Pathways to the Principalship: Exploring the Principal Pipeline in One Urban School District

• In Event: Roundtable Session 116
  In Roundtable Session: Onward! Leading the Charge: Principal Capacity and Effectiveness

Abstract

Principal hiring represents an area of acute policy concern, given the long-argued importance of school leaders in policy implementation and instructional improvement. This paper reports on a mixed-methods study of principal hiring in a large urban school district that recently redesigned its principal eligibility and hiring processes. While the larger study involves collection of various data, this paper’s analysis focuses on administrative data detailing the passage of candidates through the eligibility and hiring pipeline. Specifically, this paper provides a portrait of candidates seeking entrance to the principal labor market (the ‘aspiring’ market), a portrait of those who achieve eligibility (the ‘actual’ market), and identifies those factors which predict candidates’ successful transitions from applicants to eligible candidates to employed principals.

Authors

• Michelle Reininger, Stanford University

• Lauren M. Anderson, University of Southern California