Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine the mobility and attrition patterns of principals in Texas public schools. The primary interest was to identify whether and for how school principals leave or stay at their first job and the mobility patterns they follow during their careers. A secondary purpose was to examine principals' personal characteristics, as well as type of school, level of schooling, and students characteristics of schools where the principals were more likely to leave. Using 1995-2014 survey data from the Texas Education Agency, a longitudinal descriptive analysis was performed to examine principals' mobility trends. First, the authors determined the trend of principals' mobility. Second, they analyzed the principals, schools, and students characteristics of the schools. The findings show that the 75.26 percent of principals left their first job. 17.5 percent left after one year of principalship and approximately only the 22 percent finished the school cohort when they began their principalship. Principal's personal characteristics and school characteristics have different effects on the percentage of principals leaving their first, second, third, and four times as school leaders. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are provided.

Keywords:

Principal mobility, principals attrition, attrition patterns, longitudinal study.