In spring 2024, the authors surveyed 156 American School District Panel member districts about principal pipeline activities and used the data to estimate the share of U.S. public school districts engaged in such activities. Researchers also examined those activities by district enrollment size to investigate the hypothesis that the infrastructure to support the principal pipeline is mostly confined to large districts.

How School Districts Prepare and Develop School Principals

Selected Findings from the Spring 2024 American School District Panel Survey

Melissa Kay Diliberti, Heather L. Schwartz, Samantha E. DiNicola

ResearchPublished Sep 19, 2024

In spring 2024, the authors surveyed 156 American School District Panel member districts about principal pipeline activities across seven domains — leader standards, principal preparation, selective hiring and placement, on-the-job support and evaluation, principal supervision, leader tracking systems, and systems of support — to estimate the share of U.S. public school districts engaged in such activities. Researchers also examined those activities by district enrollment size to investigate the hypothesis that the infrastructure to support the principal pipeline is mostly confined to large districts.

This report is intended to support administrators of principal preparation programs, school district leaders, state department of education staff who oversee principal certification and leadership development, and education researchers who study school leadership.

Key Findings

  • Assistant principalship is the main pathway to principalship in large districts (those serving 10,000 students or more) and medium districts (those serving 3,000 to 9,999 students) but not in small districts (those serving less than 3,000 students).
  • Of the seven domains of principal pipeline activities examined, districts most commonly provided written leader standards for principals and on-the-job supports for novice principals. Leader tracking systems and dedicated support staff were the least common activities.
  • A greater share of large districts than of small (and often medium) districts invested in all seven domains of principal pipeline activities examined.
  • As of spring 2024, districts did not foresee cuts to their existing principal pipeline infrastructure when coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) federal aid was set to expire in September 2024.

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Citation

RAND Style Manual
Diliberti, Melissa Kay, Heather L. Schwartz, and Samantha E. DiNicola, How School Districts Prepare and Develop School Principals: Selected Findings from the Spring 2024 American School District Panel Survey, RAND Corporation, RR-A956-27, 2024. As of October 12, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-27.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Diliberti, Melissa Kay, Heather L. Schwartz, and Samantha E. DiNicola, How School Districts Prepare and Develop School Principals: Selected Findings from the Spring 2024 American School District Panel Survey. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-27.html.
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This research was funded by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.

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