Mobility and Turnover among School Principals

This paper uses administrative data from two states covering the school years 1987-1988 to 2000-2001 to examine principal turnover and mobility. We use a longitudinal event history modeling approach to examine whether individual characteristics of the principal and the school in which they work are related to different types of principal turnover. We find that over the time period considered, turnover among all school principals was 14 percent in Illinois and 18 percent in North Carolina. Only 20 percent of this turnover was due to principals leaving the system in Illinois; and 13 percent in North Carolina. However, we observe some interesting variation by school characteristics. Specifically, we find that principals in schools with a larger proportion of minority students are more likely to change schools and to leave the principalship, but remain in the system.