Who is Leading Our Schools?

📖 The Scoop

This bound report describes a study of school administrators and their careers. The study examined the characteristics of school administrators; movement into, out of, and within the school administrative field; and incentives for movement into, out of, and between administrative positions. The study was not intended to be a complete analysis of the potential shortage of capable school administrators; it focused solely on supply. A related report (Roza et al., 2002) links supply and demand in an analysis of principal shortages. This report discusses previous research done on the subject and the study's analysis of data. The study found the following. The number of administrators is stable, though the group is aging. There is little evidence that school administrators are being lured into other career fields. Principals are not fleeing schools serving disadvantaged students. Overall, individuals appear to have incentives to move into and through the administrative career path. The study also identified three key policy implications: Public school systems should look for ways to respond to aging trends in the principalship; local-level data and analyses of the careers of administrators are needed; and policymakers should further examine the forms of entry into the school administration field. Appended are: (1) General Analysis of Schools and Staffing Survey; (2) Analyses of Schools and Staffing Survey Data on Principals' Earnings and Experience; (3) Analysis of Principals' Reports of School Problems; and (4) Using Current Population Survey Data to Examine School Administrators' Careers. (Contains 112 references, 35 tables, and 30 figures.) (WFA).

Genre: Education / General (fancy, right?)