Beyond the Pipeline: Getting the Principals We Need, Where They Are Needed Most

A Forum — May 30, 2003

Forum Summary

A new policy brief from the Wallace Foundation, Beyond the Pipeline: Getting the Principals We Need, Where They Are Needed Most, provides a synthesis of findings from three recent studies about the nature of the current labor market for principals. [The brief is available at www.wallacefoundation.org.  At this forum, representatives from The Wallace Foundation and from urban schools, researchers, and a school superintendent discussed the studies and strategies to attract and retain highly qualified principals.

M. Christine DeVita, President of The Wallace Foundation, explained that the Foundation has come to realize that while quality teaching is at the heart of learning, it is only with quality leadership that quality teaching can occur. With the passage of No Child Left Behind, schools are now held accountable for helping all students achieve to high standards. But simply requiring under-performing schools to do better is not enough – schools need leadership that can actually create real improvement.

Richard Laine, Director of Education Programs, The Wallace Foundation, provided an overview of the findings from the three research studies. He said it is commonly assumed that there is a serious shortage of qualified candidates for the principalship; however, the research commissioned by The Wallace Foundation indicates that this assumption is mistaken. Research suggests that there is a sufficient pool of candidates; however, many potential candidates are not seeking jobs in the districts or schools that need them most. According to the Wallace report, “It’s time to move beyond the pipeline, away from policies aimed solely at increasing the numbers of certified candidates, and focus far more attention and resources on reforming policies and practices” to address this problem.

Specifically the research showed: 1) there is no statistical evidence of a nationwide shortage of certified candidates for the principalship; 2) districts and schools perceived as having the most challenging working conditions have the hardest time attracting principal candidates; and 3) hiring practices and common search criteria are compounding the problem that districts have in attracting principal candidates capable of meeting heightened expectations for student academic performance.

The policy brief concludes by suggesting that three goals be adopted: 1) adjust incentives and working conditions to enable non-competitive schools and districts to attract qualified leadership candidates; 2) bring local recruitment and hiring practices in line with heightened expectations for principal performance; and 3) redefine the job itself in ways that allow principals to concentrate on student learning above all else.

Susan Gates, an economist at Rand Corporation and author of one of the three research reports (Who is Leading Our Schools? An Overview of School Administrators and Their Careers), described the findings from her research. She found no evidence of an insufficient number of officially qualified candidates given the number of jobs available. The market is remarkably stable; there have been no major increases in demand, decreases in salary, or changes in rates of entry and exit from the field. However, on a more local level, particular schools and districts are having a difficult time attracting and retaining qualified leaders. Therefore, broad policies at the national level are not likely to be effective in solving the problems that exist locally; policies are needed that are targeted to particular schools and districts.

Study from New York State: Laine described the findings from the second study (The Attributes and Career Paths of Principals: Implications for Improving Policy) that examined the career paths and attributes of prospective and current New York State principals. This study found that the impending shortage of leaders “may not be as dire as previously suggested.” However, some schools are more likely to attract less qualified candidates: low performing schools in New York City, for instance, are much more likely to end up with inexperienced principals who attended less prestigious colleges. Researchers also found a “graying of the principalship:” 66 percent of principals hired in 2000 were at least 50 years old. Given that individuals tend not to remain in their positions beyond the age of 55, this trend may lead to shorter careers and ultimately exacerbate turnover.

Principals in urban areas are also being paid less than those in other types of communities. In a follow-up study, the researchers surveyed all of the individuals certified to be principals but not currently serving in that capacity: 85 percent would be willing and able to enter it if the conditions were right.

Given these findings, Laine said, it is not appropriate to focus our attention on attracting more people into the profession; there are enough highly qualified candidates. Rather, we must attract those individuals to where they are needed, namely, low performing schools, said Laine. To do this, we need to think about how we can create the conditions, such as mentoring, coaching, and adequate compensation, to attract highly qualified applicants to these schools.

Marguerite Roza, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Reinventing Education, University of Washington, said the third study, A Matter of Definition: Is There Truly A Shortage of School Principals?, produced findings consistent with the two other studies. In addition, she found that superintendents have very high expectations for the qualifications of principal candidates, and they “want someone who can walk on water” and possess a range of skills. However, most human resource departments “interpret the demand for improved quality [of principals] as a call for more experience in education” and teaching. Personnel and hiring policies should be reviewed to ensure that the best and the brightest go into the schools that need them most, said Roza.

Daniel Domenech, Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, said the issue he faces is finding people who are highly qualified (which is different from being certified) to meet the demands of the job. Today’s principals need to have knowledge and skills about curriculum and instruction, but also about organizational leadership and change. And, given these high expectations, the traditional way of identifying candidates needs to be changed. We need to actively recruit promising people with potential and engage them in paid internships before they are placed in the job, use experienced principals as mentors, and surround new principals with a team of people to provide resources and guidance, said Domenech.

Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of Great City Schools, argued that attracting and retaining highly qualified principals where they are needed most is, in part, a structural problem: there are insufficient resources to attract and retain qualified personnel and those resources are inequitably distributed. And, too often, we fail to recognize that principals work within a system and that this system sometimes supports them and sometimes does not. To attract qualified people to where they are needed most, districts should provide professional development and mentor programs that support and guide principals, offer incentive pay to those who choose to lead in the toughest schools, develop good data systems to provide a barometer of student learning, provide more latitude in the hiring of teachers and other staff, and give principals more control over funds. Resources and salaries for leaders should be targeted to urban districts, where pay tends to be lower. Casserly concluded by saying that when we continue to insist that principals alone take responsibility for student achievement in a district, we set them up to fail, and then we wonder why we have a tough time finding replacements.

The Wallace Foundation studies and the experiences from school district leaders indicate that policies to attract and retain high quality leaders need to be well targeted to specific and local needs. These include incentives to draw high quality leaders to the neediest schools with the most difficult working conditions, improving hiring practices to identify qualified leaders who have more than classroom teaching experience, and providing ongoing mentoring and other supports to new leaders to help them learn and be more successful on the job.

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