Establishing The Need For Highly Qualified Principals:



How The Principal Residency Network Provides
A Proven Program to Effectively Address The Need

There is a vast body of research in the field of educational leadership development that strongly backs the basic components of the LOFT Principal Residency Network expansion plans.   The following passage from an August 2005 report out of Stanford University provides a succinct and cogent overview as to why we believe “PRN” will make a demonstrable difference in the preparation of visionary school leaders:

“Principals play a vital role in setting the direction for successful schools, but a shortfall in qualified leaders is hindering many American schools from providing effective education for all students.  Traditional methods of preparing administrators are no longer adequate to meet the leadership challenges posed by modern schools.   Existing training for principals often fails to prepare them for their central task of creating a climate of improved learning – nor does it use approaches that we know are effective in achieving that goal, including a coherent curriculum, the use of mentors and cohort groups.”

Key findings from the same study:


1.     “In some parts of the country 60 percent of principals will retire, resign, or otherwise leave their positions over the next five years.”

2.     “The processes and standards by which many principal preparation programs traditionally screen, select, and graduate candidates are often ill-defined, irregularly applied, and lacking in rigor.  Effective programs are research-based, have curricular coherence, use cohort groupings and mentors, and are structured to enable activity between the program and area schools” Note: These recommended components are found at the very core of PRN’s curricula structures.


The basic question, “Is there a shortage of candidates for the job of school principal?” is answered throughout the many studies that were reviewed by us in attempt to assure ourselves and potential supporters that a nation-wide shortage does indeed exist.  For the sake of brevity here are points taken from national principal associations and from the United States Department of Labor.  Please keep in mind that there are no studies extant that clearly answer the questions of exactly how many principals will be needed in precise terms, but the trends are universally aligned and each demonstrates that there is a current and ever increasing need for highly qualified school leaders:

• Approximately half of the school districts surveyed indicated a shortage in the labor pool for K-12 principal positions they were trying to fill, regardless of the school’s grade levels and whether they were rural, suburban or urban schools.’
  
  

• In California 73 percent of the 376 superintendents reported a lack of qualified candidates for elementary school principal positions.
  
  

• In an Indiana survey 72.9 percent of the responding superintendents described the pool of candidates from which they hired principals as being much smaller than in any previous years and defined this as “a shortage.”
  
  

• The National Association of Elementary School Principals revealed in a ten-year study (2002) that more than half of their members planned on retiring in the next decade.
  
  

• Of the responding principals in a New York State survey in October 2004, 46 percent said they were planning to retire within five years.
  
  

• In a 2004 survey of Massachusetts’s principals 33 percent indicated they plan on retiring in less than 5 years.
  
  

• The Maryland Department of Education reported in 2003 that 45 percent of all principal position experienced vacancies.
  
  

According to the US Department of Education there are currently 123,385 public and private schools in the United States.   Using the data above data points and many other corroborating research projects there is an irrefutable shortage of qualified school principals that is likely to be exacerbated by the growing median age of current principals.  In a 2000 study the median age of a principal was 57.


When looking at the statistics for teachers and principals and looking at job vacancies we can project the following numbers. 

According to recent articles 60% of principal will be retiring or leaving their jobs in the next five years means of the 110,000 principals there will be approximately 66,000 vacancies.  Assuming an even distribution, each year there will be a search for 13,200 principals. In our earliest years we are looking to enroll 350 students, then 1100 leading to a maximum of 3300 per year.  In the earliest year we are looking to develop candidates to fill 2.6 % of the total need. At our maximum we are looking at 25 % of the openings in a year. Please keep in mind that many teachers get their certification but choose to postpone or never become a school principal. Research indicates that many graduates of traditional programs do not feel prepared for a leadership role, so while these projections may seem high in the end, many graduates will not seek principalships. They need to get a Masters Degree to stay licensed as a teacher so they choose to gain certification as a principal so as to have an option that they may never use.  An example of this is the Mission Hill School in Boston that has 7 PRN graduates on their staff, many as teacher leaders.


Principal Residency Network Advantage:


As an Educational Leadership program PRN has several distinct and profound advantages.  PRN is unique in its approach to preparing school principals for an ever increasingly complex job.  By focusing our curriculum around moral courage and moving a positive vision we are addressing a reason other than age why so many principal job searches have few highly qualified applicants.  Because of PRN’s curricula structures and alignment with the national ELCC Leadership Standards we are poised to prepare principals as no other program can currently emulate.


Because of this and because of the many combined years of collaborative professionalism on the part of the PRN leadership, we have been sought out as the Educational Leadership program of choice by several prominent school reform organizations at the very foundational steps of our expansion.  Because of deep, trusting and mutually respectful relationships, PRN has been asked to explore relationships to prepare principals with the Coalition of Essential Schools, The Big Picture Schools, Stanford University, The Alternative High School Initiative, National School Reform Faculty, SUNY University System, Northeastern University, New England College, School for International Training and World Learning, Successful Practices Network, International Organization for Leadership in Education, Center for Collaborative Education and the Southern Regional Education Board.

Another resource for the need for leadership
Reshaping the Landscape of School Leadership Development: A Global Perspective
By Philip Hallinger,Click Here




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