More than 20% of newly appointed school principals leave their schools within two years, according to a recently published Rand Corporation study of 519 first-year principals in six urban districts: Memphis; Chicago; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; and Oakland, California. Those appointed to low-achieving or struggling schools are most likely to leave sooner, possibly reflecting district concerns about their effectiveness. But Rand also found that getting rid of the principal did little to help matters since the schools they headed continued to struggle after they left. As one of the report’s authors told Education Week, “Churn is not good.”
The study also found that effective new principals rapidly improve teacher capacity and staff cohesiveness, two of the keys to turning around low-performing schools. The authors conclude that districts should pay more attention to principal placement to ensure a good “fit” between a school and its leader.
