Leadership Preparation and the Career Paths of Black Principals

Abstract

Leadership training and administrative experience are key components of sponsored mobility as the candidate’s participation in district- or school-sponsored training for aspiring school principals combined with the opportunity to avail of administrative experiences effectively constitute a pipeline to the principalship. The literature reveals that principals are the primary sponsor of teachers entering into the principalship pipeline. We conceptualize two of the above key areas (leadership training & administrative experience) as components of contest mobility and the other two (participation & opportunity) as components of sponsored mobility. Contest mobility encompasses academic credentialing and management experience and assumes every candidate has an equal chance and the same opportunity as any other candidate to contest for a school leadership position. These actions are not sponsored by the candidate’s district or school. In contrast, sponsored mobility encompasses the informal process used to facilitate transition to leadership for some teachers, but not for others. We use restricted data from the 2011 to 2012 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to discern whether there were differences between Black and White principals’ exogenous contest mobility and endogenous sponsored mobility prior to the attainment of their principalships.