Viewpoints:
School Leadership in the 21st Century:
Why and How it Is Important
Is There a Shortage of Effective School Leaders?
Much of the concern about school leadership stems from (1) a clearer understanding of how leadership can make a difference in schools and districts failing to meet the needs of their students and (2) a belief that there is an impending shortage of qualified people to fill school leadership positions. Daniel Curry, superintendent of Woods County Schools, West Virginia (Olson, 2000b), recommends taking a long, hard look at the job: "Long term, I think we really need to look at the job itself. There are demands on principals that didn't exist before. We may have to rethink the whole role of the principal and perhaps provide some additional help."
Adding to the concern is the 1998 report from the National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals, which describes a lack of diversity in the principal candidate pool. As the nation's student population becomes more ethnically diverse, its principal population may need to follow suit. Therefore, we ask: What does a typical school leader look like and what is the basis for concern about a shortage of school leaders in the future?
Today's Leaders
Based on a 1998 survey of elementary and middle school principals (Doud & Keller, 1998) we have a good picture of our current school leaders. The typical principal is 50 years old, has 25 years of experience as an educator, and has held this position for 11 years--6 of them in the current school. He (a majority of principals are male) supervises 30 professional staff and 14 support staff but does not have the help of an assistant principal. Although he is the manager of the school, he has control over only 26 pecent of the school's budget. Currently, 16 percent of all principals are minorities. Only 12 percent of principals at the secondary level are minorities. The typical principal works ten hours a day and spends an additional eight hours per week on school-related activities. The average salary of elementary school principals for the 1999-2000 school year is $69,407 (National Association of Elementary School Principals, 2000a). Their assistants make on average $56,419. At the middle school level, these figures increase to $73,877; $60,842 for assistants. Doud and Keller (1998) have found that salaries are higher in larger schools and are influenced by the principal's experience and education. Salaries are also higher in urban areas.
A survey of principals from the 1993-1994 school year (Fiore & Curtin, 1997) suggests that secondary school principals differ from elementary and middle school principals in important ways: First, they are more highly paid. The average salary of secondary school principals is approximately 5 percent higher than that of middle school principals. Second, female principals are less likely to be found in secondary schools. Whereas one-third of all public school principals are female, only 14 percent occupy this position at the secondary level. Further, both women and minority principals are more prevalent in large districts in either central cities or urban fringes.
The Looming Leadership Shortage
There is increasing concern that there is (or soon will be) a shortage of people willing to fill positions of leadership in schools. This concern results from three problems. One, many potential school leaders are deterred from entering the field because of the perception that the demands of the job are impossible to meet. Heightened district and public demand to improve standards and student performance appear to be negatively affecting interest in the principalship. Two, the current turnover rate in the principalship would seem to indicate that there is some truth to this perception. Third, a boom in teacher and other school personnel retirements reflect the hiring frenzy of the 1960s.
Of the principals surveyed by Doud and Keller in 1998, two-thirds expressed concern over public education's ability to attract quality people to the principalship in the future. Another recent study conducted by the National Association for Elementary School Principals and the National Association for Secondary School Principals (1988) provides support for these fears. The study found that half of the superintendents who had recently filled principal vacancies felt there was a shortage of qualified candidates.
The study also identified several factors that superintendents believe are discouraging potential principals from applying for the position. By far the most commonly cited factor was that the compensation is not sufficient given the demands of the job (60 percent gave this as a primary reason). Most states and districts require public school administrators to have several years of teaching experience and complete a certification process that involves coursework at an accredited university. There is competing evidence about the value of this process in preparing aspiring leaders for their jobs.
As suggested in the taped interviews in this packet, some anecdotal evidence suggests that the hassle of obtaining certification requirements and the modest pay increase to become a principal deter good teachers from moving into management positions. Teachers pursing an administrative certificate are typically required to attend courses toward certification on their own time and to pay for these courses themselves.
A further problem is that many teachers who have already gone to the trouble of obtaining an administrative credential choose to remain in the classroom rather than assume a leadership position. The taped interviews reveal that teachers are deterred by the long hours required by these leadership positions and turned off by the administrative activities leadership positions require.
If teachers are deterred from moving into leadership positions, then where will we find new leaders? Nonteachers who might have an interest in pursuing a career as a principal or who might like to assume such a position for a few years face even greater barriers in that they must gain at least a few years of teaching experience, which would likely require them to obtain some form of teacher certification in addition to the administrative certification. If, as noted earlier, the level of compensation in school administration is insufficient to entice teachers to enter the principalship, it seems that it would be even more difficult to recruit from other professions, particularly those that are more highly paid. These factors, linked together, signal school leadership shortages in the future. Heightened demands, high turnover rates, insufficient pay, and cumbersome and costly application prerequisites all appear to effectively shrink the pool of potential leadership candidates.
