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A Little on Leadership Preparation and Employment (While it Lasts)

By Justin Bathon

It's not very often that my little group of researchers on educational leadership preparation makes the news, so when they do, I want to point it out. Ed Fuller, who works for UCEA at the University of Texas, is quoted in an article in the Austin-American Statesman, and his research on principal movement out of the profession is presented in the article. Here is a bit of the article:

School districts nationwide are finding it harder to hold on to principals as standards get tougher and the list of demands from the state and federal governments gets longer.

Statewide, high turnover is particularly apparent in high schools. About 61 percent of high school principals leave their schools or the field within three years; by the fifth year, that figure increases to 76 percent. Austin's turnover rates are slightly higher: 64 percent after three years and 82 percent after five years.

The district's annual high school principal turnover rate is just over 25 percent, a figure that is on par with other urban districts, where yearly turnover tends to average 18 percent to 25 percent.

When the principalship is a revolving door at a school, experts say, it trickles down to teacher retention efforts and school reform initiatives, which have vast implications for a district like Austin, where the 11 traditional high schools are in various stages of reform, with middle schools soon to follow. Local changes have included redesigning high schools to resemble colleges.

More pressure

The accountability system has changed expectations.

"While principals put stress on teachers to improve outcomes, teachers often do not lose their jobs over low accountability ratings," said Fuller, who has analyzed cumulative state turnover rates. "Principals do."

I am not going to go on a whole expose on this topic (believe me I can - here is a link to my Indiana study), but I do think there is something significant developing here. Ed's point that principals are under increased pressure to perform under the accountability standards and that that may be contributing to the increase in principal movement is a very good one. I just had a meeting with a state official last week that reiterated this point to me that it is the principals and the other school leaders that are the easiest to change when schools do not perform. The state official and I talked at good length about what to do about it and we both suggested possibilities (there is a greater role for universities here), but the fact of the matter is that when a team is losing it is always far easier to get rid of the coach than it is to change the players. This is probably just a developing fact of life for school leaders in the future. There are lots to ways to help alleviate this reality and the article mentions some, but it is probably a developing reality in the accountability age. Sometime to think about for all you aspiring principals out there.

Full post as published by Edjurist on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).