Assistant Principal Mobility and Its Relationship With Principal Turnover

Abstract

Assistant principals (APs) are important education personnel, but empirical evidence about their career outcomes remains scarce. Using administrative data from Tennessee and Missouri, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of AP mobility. While prior work focuses on promotions into principal positions, we also examine APs exiting school leadership and transferring across schools. We find yearly mobility rates of 25% to 28%, with 10% of APs leaving school leadership, 7.5% changing schools, and 7.5% to 10% becoming principals. We also document a strong relationship between AP mobility and principal turnover, where higher-performing APs are substantially more likely to replace their departing principal. Finally, principal transitions appear to increase the likelihood that APs exit school leadership and change schools.

Building experience and retention: the influence of principal tenure on teacher retention rates

“…Because our measure only counts a teacher as retained if they stay in the school (even if their hiring principal leaves), the effect of teacher retention is calculated by attributing the hire to the principal in each year of tenure. Previous studies have considered the disruption to school as a principal departs and attributes the resulting teacher turnover and falling academic scores to the leadership turnover (Bartanen et al. , 2021).…”

Navigating Quandaries and Hard Places: The Impact of Leadership Dynamics on the Career Paths of Three BIPOC Women Assistant Principals

“…Historically, the AP position has been conceived as a step toward the principalship (Bartanen et al, 2021; Clayton & Bingham, 2018; Militello et al, 2015), resulting in less focus on understanding the role and its impact. However, the AP role has shifted to that of an educational leader that serves the school, second to the principal, within a distributed model of school leadership (Bartanen et al, 2021).…”

A Content Analysis of Secondary School Department Leader Position Descriptions

“…Principals who see the department chairs as partners in instructional leadership and acknowledge their content area expertise as well as their position as teacher leaders are more likely to foster a collaborative approach (Brent et al, 2014). Principals who structure leadership as rigidly hierarchical with little input from teachers tend to have department chairs who mirror this approach, though this is context-dependent on the dynamics of the department and school culture (Bartanen et al, 2021;DeAngelis, 2013;Ghamrawi, 2013). Leadership coaching communities have a record of successfully supporting principals in their work (Klar et al, 2020).…”

“…This content analysis suggests that department chairs often share in administrative responsibilities that make department leaders mid-level managers and, as such, department chairs are teacher leaders who are equivalent to assistant principals in their influence on curriculum development and learning measurement (Bartanen et al, 2021;Ghamrawi, 2013). Generally, instructional leadership is a primary role for the department chair (Peacock, 2014).…”