Dive Brief:
- About 76% of large districts report having at least one specific activity designed to prepare educators to become principals, while 54% of medium and 41% of small sized districts said the same, according to a survey of district leaders released Thursday by Rand Corp. and the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
- The main pathway to becoming a school principal in a large or medium school district is by first taking on the role of an assistant principal — but for small districts of less than 3,000 students, a principal more commonly starts from school leadership outside of that district, the survey found.
- Large districts of 10,000 students or more were also more likely than small districts to have written leader standards for principals that described what they need to know and do in their roles as school leaders, according to the survey.
Dive Insight:
Rand and CRPE looked specifically at seven principal pipeline domains, including:
- Leader standards.
- Principal preparation.
- Selective hiring and placement.
- On-the-job support and evaluation.
- Principal supervision.
- Leader tracking systems.
- Systems of support.
In addition to having written standards for job expectations, large districts were more likely than small and medium-sized districts to engage in principal preparation such as professional development for aspiring principals.
"The simple fact that large districts have many school principals to prepare, screen, hire, place, and develop compared with smaller districts likely explains many of the large differences we see," the report said.
Leader tracking systems that include computerized data programs showing the qualifications and performance of current or aspiring principals was the least commonly used principal pipeline activity for all districts. Nationally, only about 3 in 10 districts have a staff person dedicated to support school leadership.
Most of the 190 districts surveyed in the spring said they don't predict cuts to their principal pipeline activities due to the expiration of federal COVID-19 emergency funds. Having practices that support the hiring and development of school principals can contribute to better student outcomes, the report said.
Rand and CRPE suggest that school principal associations, principal preparation programs and state education agencies can help small and medium districts strengthen pipeline activities by providing samples of principal standards and other resources. The organizations also recommended that education researchers look into how different small and medium districts develop principal pipeline programs within their bandwidths.
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