take this JOB and fill it

Leadership, May, 2001 by Judith A. Kerrins, Thomas Johnstone, Katherine S. Cushing

Data from an ACSA survey documents the extent of the principal shortage and rates the performance of newly hired school principals.

Talk with just about any school superintendent or human resource director in California and he or she will tell you there's a shortage of applicants looking for principalship jobs across the state.

Former Colorado governor and now Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent Roy Romer discovered this his first month or so on the job. He expressed concern that L.A. Unified, the second largest school district in the United States, was about to open the 2000-2001 school with 40 unfilled principal positions.

His concern isn't surprising: pick up any issue of EdCal and you'll find many districts advertising for principals. The Feb. 5 issue alone included announcements for 71 principal vacancies and 31 assistant principal vacancies, some available immediately. Several districts advertised multiple openings and listed the application deadline as "open until filled."

Leaving their jobs at younger ages, principals report that high stress, time demands of the job, broadening requirements of the job that far exceed salaries and new state accountability legislation make retirement appealing. Add to that the shortage of teachers -- the primary pool from which principal candidates emerge -- and the impending crisis should become a national concern.

During the spring of 2000 the Association of California School Administrators and the California Association of Professors of Educational Administration conducted a statewide survey to investigate the nature of the principal shortage in California. Specifically, we sought to identify the number of principal vacancies over the past three years, the number of anticipated vacancies over the next three years, and perceptions about the qualities and skills of recent principal hires.

The survey was mailed to every public school superintendent in the state of California; responses were returned from almost half the districts.

* Is there really a shortage of principal applicants in California? Data from this survey confirm the anecdotal evidence: the principal shortage in California is real. That's a bit of a conundrum, because the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing data indicate there's not a shortage of individuals with administrative credentials. Between 1997 and 1999 the number of new administrative credentials issued (5,508) was enough to fill about 65 percent of the public school principal positions in the state. The number of renewed or reissued administrative credentials during those same years (7,255) was enough to fill almost 90 percent of the principal positions. So why does the data from the ACSA/CAPEA survey document a shortage of principal applicants for advertised positions in school districts across the state? One university professor explained this phenomena: "Many of my students want to be central office administrators, but they don't want to be principals because they recognize how difficult and demanding the job is."

* How large is the shortage of applicants for principal positions? In order to better understand the severity of the shortage, we began by asking questions about the number of principals hired during the past three years and the number of anticipated vacancies for the coming three years.

When asked about recent hires, almost half the districts indicated they'd hired one or two principals and an additional 20 percent reported they had hired three or more principals over the past three years.

What about future needs? Almost half the elementary districts say they'll hire at least one or two new elementary principals within the next three years; an additional 15 percent anticipate hiring three or more elementary principals.

Among high school districts, more than half anticipate hiring one or two principals, with more than two-thirds of them hiring between one and four new principals over the next three years.

Among unified districts, half plan to hire one to two elementary, middle and high school principals between the start of the 2000 and the end of the 2002-03 school year. The demand is greatest at the elementary level, with 83 percent anticipating hiring at least one elementary principal during this time frame.

* Where are these vacancies located and at what level? If there isn't a vacancy in your district, there's probably one close by. It seems you can go just about anywhere in California and find a principalship opening.

Slightly more than half the rural districts expect to hire elementary principals in the next three years, one-quarter will hire middle school principals and about the same percent say they'll hire high school principals.

Almost 80 percent of the suburban districts will hire elementary principals, nearly half expect to hire middle school principals and about one-third will hire high school principals.

Slightly more than 80 percent of the urban districts report they'll hire elementary principals, about 30 percent expect to hire middle school principals and about 40 percent anticipate hiring high school principals.