The path to becoming a school principal is characterized by a variety of trajectories that reflect the diverse experiences and backgrounds of aspiring leaders. While ideally the road to the principalship would result in a proportional and representative body of principals, research has shown this is rarely the case. To gain a better understanding of where sorting mechanisms may occur along the principal pipeline, this paper longitudinally analyzes the full, start-to-finish career trajectories of over 1.6 million educators in Texas for 30 years. Using social sequence analysis and discrete-time hazard modeling, we find that (1) emergent principals tend to stay in their first teaching position longer than other educators and most often take a direct pathway towards the principalship; (2) proportionally, more principals emerge from elementary, ELA, Social Studies, or STEM fields, while fewer come from Special Education; (3) holding other features constant, male and Black educators are more likely to become a principal while female and Hispanic educators are less likely; and (4) educators are more likely to first become principals when transitioning to a smaller school with more Black and/or Hispanic students. While the pipeline does result in a balanced principal market in some areas, increasing efforts to encourage a more diverse content area representation as well as representation for Hispanic educators in Texas will be particularly important.
Keywords
Leadership emergence, career pathways, recruitment and hiring, career steps, career changes, principal sorting, principal labor market
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/garp-q873