Center on Reinventing Public Education
Marguerite Roza, Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey and Susan Wishon
January 2003
This new report on principal shortages from the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington describes a paradox: "There are plenty of 'certified' applicants, but there seems to be a dearth of candidates with high-level leadership skills." This finding, one of many interesting insights into the current pool of school-administrator candidates and who actually gets selected to lead schools, is based on a survey of district human resource directors, superintendents and other staff. The vast majority of school districts in the United States - most of the exceptions are urban schools, especially high schools - have enough candidates to fill their school leadership needs. In fact, there is a surfeit of certified educators who have absolutely no intention of ever actually leading a school-people who get certified, often using a state tuition subsidy, so as to move up their district's pay-scale. Despite this overcapacity in terms of certified leaders, there's a shortage of QUALITY leaders, the more so in the era of No Child Left Behind. Another fascinating finding in this report is that "human resource departments march to a different drummer.... While asserting they want people with leadership skills, human resource departments default to traditional qualifications, relying primarily on substantial years of teaching experience to cull their candidates." (In contrast, only a third of superintendents view teaching experience as highly significant qualities for principals.) What this means in practice is that school-system bureaucracies rarely consider non-traditional candidates - regardless of leadership prowess - to lead their schools. In reading this report, it is clear that, if we are serious about creating excellent schools for all American children, business as usual won't cut it in terms of principal recruitment and selection. To check this timely report out for yourself, surf to http://www.crpe.org/pubs/introMatterOfDefinition.shtml.
