Characteristics of Public School Principals: Analysis of the National Teacher and Principal Survey

Stephen F Austin State University, Baker Pattillo Student Center

Gender and racial diversity in the principalship, or the lack thereof, has been a topic for research for several years. While the concerns about general disparity are widely discussed, it is equally important to consider where underrepresented groups are typically hired, such as urban schools with high-poverty levels. Discrepancies in hiring have implications for promotion into superintendent and other educational leadership positions, as well as for overall financial compensation, where minority groups such as females and races other than White are forced to take lower-level jobs or jobs at the same level for less pay than their White male counterparts. Existing data from the 2017-18 United States National Teacher and Principal Survey were used to perform Chi-Square Tests for Association to evaluate how the gender and race of public school principals are distributed across various factors. We found there is a statistically significant association between race and community type, race and school poverty levels, age and school level, gender and community type, gender and school level, and gender and school poverty level. Findings suggest Black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to be overrepresented in city schools that have high poverty levels, while females are more likely to be overrepresented in city primary schools with high poverty levels.