The Assistant Principalship: A Keystone or a Stepping Stone

Schools are dynamic environments surrounded by static brick and mortar. Schools are a complex entanglement of systems clinging to normalcy led and composed of individuals seeking growth and progress. There is constant turnover as students move through the systems, gaining mastery, seeking support, and receiving guidance. Employees similarly move often as they change roles and responsibilities, as cultures emerge and evolve, and as individuals retire, are hired, or move on to other positions, commonly referred to as “job rotation.” This constant change affects a school’s culture and climate as each is achieved through sustained efforts. When change is present within the school leadership, specifically those identified as assistant principals within their organizational hierarchy, the impact on school culture may be even more dramatic than the effects felt with the turnover of students and teachers.

Held Down and Held Back: Systematically Delayed Principal Promotions by Race and Gender

Recent scholarship highlights the many benefits of diversity among principals, including improved teacher retention and student outcomes. We use survival analysis to assess the probability and time to promotion for 4,689 assistant principals in Texas from 2001 to 2017. We find that race and gender are associated with the probability of promotion to school leadership. Holding education, experience, school level, and urbanicity constant, Black principals are least likely to be promoted and wait longer for promotion when compared to White assistant principals. Additionally, findings suggest that even though women have over a year more experience on average before being promoted to assistant principal, they are less likely to be promoted to high school principal, and when they are, it is after a longer assistant principalship.

Emotional Aspects in the Transition From Teaching to Assistant Principalship

The transition from teaching to assistant principalship is a turning point in a teacher’s professional career. This transition not only reflects a change in one’s hierarchical standing at the school but also constitutes a stage that affects one’s administrative identity and aspirations to further advance in the management arena. Despite the importance of the assistant principal’s position in the school, there is a lack of worldwide research on the transition process from teaching to assistant principalship and the emotional aspects of this process. This study’s objective is to examine the emotional challenges faced by teachers as they enter the position of assistant principal. It is based on a qualitative study in which 23 assistant principals were accompanied during various stages of their entering office. Thirty-seven semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted (some of which were repeated interviews, conducted a year after the initial interview). In addition, four focus group interviews were conducted with newly appointed assistant principals. The research findings indicate an unexpected emotional ordeal on entering the role of assistant principal, often including stress, fear, crying, insomnia, fatigue, regrets, and guilt feelings. The conclusions and recommendations provided by this study may enable educational systems and colleges of education to recognize the emotional challenges that new assistant principals may face, thus addressing their needs by offering them mentorship, training, and support programs fit to deal with this unique position in school organization.