Applicant pools for principal vacancies are shrinking nationwide. Increased job demands, including greater accountability on the part of principals for student achievement, are making the job less attractive at a time when many principals from the baby boom generation are retiring. Furthermore, there is little empirical knowledge about factors that affect principal recruitment. This study took place in a state undergoing systemic school reform. Randomly selected assistant principals (n = 189) role-played as job applicants and rated high school principal jobs varied by school student achievement classification (meets goal, progressing, in need of assistance), school location (inner city, suburban, rural), and participant current work assignment (elementary, middle school, high school). The most significant finding, detected by a three-way analysis of variance, was that 64% of the variance in job ratings was accounted for by school achievement, with low performing schools being greatly disadvantaged in recruiting principals. Implications for recruitment practice and research are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barber, A. E. (1998). Recruiting employees: Individual and organizational perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
2.
Bowles, B. D. (1990). The silent crisis in educational leadership. The Education Digest, 55, 12-14.
3.
Bowles, B. , King, D., & Crow, G. (2000, April). Viable principal candidates: Superintendents’ perspective. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
4.
Campbell, D. T. , & Stanley, J. C. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago: McNally.
5.
Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavior sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
6.
Coryell, H. (2001a, April 21). Schools gear up for the CATS tests. The Courier Journal,p.A1-A1.
7.
Coryell, H. (2001b, June 12). Jefferson school district removes six principals. The Courier Journal, p. A1-A1.
8.
David, J. L. (1994). School-based decision making: Kentucky’s test of decentralization. Phi Delta Kappan, 75, 706-712.
9.
Duke, D. L. (1998). Why principals consider quitting. Phi Delta Kappan, 70, 308-312.
10.
Educational Research Service . (1998). Is there a shortage of qualified candidates for openings in the principalship? An exploratory study. Report prepared for the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association for Secondary School Principals, Arlington, VA.
11.
Fenwick, L. T. (2000). The principal shortage: Who will lead? [Monograph]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, The Principal’s Center.
12.
Glazer, J. S. (1991). Feminism and professionalism in teaching and educational administration. Educational Administration Quarterly, 27, 321-342.
13.
Hudson, M. J. (1991). How educators get top jobs: Understanding race and sex differences in the old boy network. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
14.
Hudson, M. J. (1994). Women and minorities in school administration: Re-examining the role of informal job contact systems. Urban Education, 28, 386-398.
15.
Jones, R. (1994). Instant superintendent: Can a candidate with business savvy but no education experience really handle the job?The American School Board Journal, 181(4), 23-26.
16.
Jordan, D. W. , McCauley, H. S., & Comeaux, J. B. (1994). The supply and demand trends of public school principals and administrators in southwestern Louisiana: 1993-1997, 1-12. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED375525)
17.
Judge, T. A. , & Bretz, R. D. (1992). Effects of work values on job choice decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 261-271.
18.
Kentucky Administrative Regulations. (1997). KAR 704/20:710. Retrieved from http://www. lrc.state.ky.us/kar/704/020/710.htm
19.
Kentucky Administrative Regulations. (2001). KAR 703/5:120. Retrieved from http://www. lrc.state.ky.us/regulations/703/005/120.htm
20.
Kentucky Department of Education. (2001). Testing in Kentucky. Retrieved from http://www. kde.state.ky.us/
Keppel, G. (1991). Design and analysis: A researcher’s handbook (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
23.
Kirk, R. E. (1990). Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral science (3rd ed.). New York: Brooks/Cole.
24.
Lindle, J. C. (2000). School-based decision making. In J. M. Petrosko & J. C. Lindle (Eds.), 2000 review of research on the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) (pp. 279-305). Lexington: Kentucky Institute for Education Research.
25.
Malone, B. , & Caddell, T. (2000, January/February). A crisis in leadership: Where are tomorrow’s principals?The Clearinghouse, pp. 162-164.
26.
McAdams, R. P. (1998). Who’ll run the schools? The coming administrator shortage. The American School Board Journal, 85(8), 37-39.
27.
Murphy, J. , & Beck, L. G. (1994). Restructuring the principalship: Challenges and possibilities. In J. Murphy & K. S. Louis (Eds.), Reshaping the principalship: Insights from transformational reform efforts. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
28.
National Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals . (1998). Over fifty-percent of the principals in America will retire in the next ten years. Principal, 70(4), 65-65.
29.
Nunnally, J. C. , & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
30.
Ortiz, F. I. (1982). Career patterns in education: Women, men and minorities in school administration. New York: Praeger.
31.
Ortiz, F. I. (1995). Becoming a school leader: The case of females and minorities. People & Education, 3(1), 83-111.
32.
Petrosko, J. M. (2000). Assessment and accountability. In J. M. Petrosko & J. C. Lindle (Eds.), 2000 review of research on the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) (pp. 3-81). Lexington: Kentucky Institute for Education Research.
33.
Portin, B. S. , Shen, J., & Williams, R. C. (1998). The changing principalship and its impact: Voices from principals. NASSP Bulletin, 82(602), 1-8.
34.
Pounder, D. G. , & Merrill, R. J. (2001). Job desirability of the high school principalship: A job choice theory perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 37, 27-57.
35.
Pounder, D. G. , & Young, I. P. (1996). Recruitment and selection of educational administrators: Priorities for today’s schools. In K. Leithwood (Ed.) & A. W. Hart (Section Ed.), The international handbook of educational leadership (pp. 279-308). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.
36.
Rynes, S. L. (1991). Recruitment, job choice, and post-hire consequences: A call for new research directions. In M. D. Dunnette & L. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 399-444). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
37.
Rynes, S. L. , & Barber, A. E. (1990). Applicant attraction strategies: An organizational perspective. Academy of Management Review, 15, 286-310.
38.
Rynes, S. , & Lawler, J. (1983). A policy-capturing investigation of the role of expectancies in decisions to pursue job alternatives. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 620-631.
39.
Schwab, D. P. (1982). Recruiting and organizational participation. In K. M. Rowland & G. R. Ferris (Eds.), Personnel management (pp. 103-128). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
40.
Schwab, D. P. , Rynes, S. L., & Aldag, R. J. (1987). Theories and research on job search and choice. In K. M. Rowland & G. F. Ferris (Eds.), Research in personnel and human resource management (Vol. 5, pp. 129-166). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
41.
Shakeshaft, C. (1989). Women in educational administration. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.
42.
U.S. Department of Labor . (2000). Occupational outlook handbook, 2000-01 edition (Bulletin 2520). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
43.
Whitaker, K. S. (2001). Where are the principal candidates: Perceptions of superintendents. NASSP Bulletin, 85(625), 82-92.
44.
Winter, P. A. (1996). Recruiting experienced educators: A model and a test. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 29, 163-171.
45.
Winter, P. A. , & Dunaway, D. M. (1997). Reactions of teachers, as applicants, to principal recruitment practices in a reform environment: The effects of job attributes, job information source, and school level. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 30, 144-153.
46.
Yerkes, D. M. , & Guaglianone, C. L. (1998, November). Recruiting and retaining effective high school administrators. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association of California School Administrators, San Diego, CA.
47.
Young, I. P. , & Heneman, H. G., III (1986). Predictors of interviewee reactions to the selection interview. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 19, 29-36.
48.
Young, I. P. , Place, A. W., Rinehart, J. S., Jury, J. C., & Baits, D. F. (1997). Teacher recruitment: A test of the similarity-attraction hypothesis for race and sex. Educational Administration Quarterly, 33, 86-106.
49.
Young, I. P. , Rinehart, J. S., & Heneman, H. G., III (1993). Effects of job attribute categories, applicant job experience, and recruiter sex on applicant job attractiveness ratings. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 7, 55-66.
50.
Young, I. P. , Rinehart, J. S., Place, A. W. (1989). Theories for teacher selection: Objective, subjective, and critical contact. Teaching and Teacher Education, 5, 329-336.
