North Carolina is facing a huge and growing shortage of school based administrators.
In the next five years, fifty percent of school based administrators are eligible for
retirement.

Fact Sheet:

Driving Forces:
• In 2005 the Principal Executive Program (PEP) conducted a study showing 51 percent of the current principals are age 50 or older, 45 percent of assistant principals are age 50 or older, and 51 percent of current principals have 25 or more years of experience.

• The School Leadership in the 21st Century report presented to the State Board of Education in September 2006 shows that 279 assistant principals were issued the provisional license in 2005- 2006 as compared to 40 that were issued in the initial year (1999-2000).

• The Department of Public Instruction licensure records indicate that there are approximately nineteen thousand (19,321) individuals holding administrative licenses in North Carolina. Only 6,017 of those are currently employed as assistant principals, principals, and/or central office administrators.

• Teachers are choosing to stay in the classroom after receiving their Masters in School Administration (MSA).

• Many MSA graduates decide to become Nationally Board certified, which provides an additional 12 percent salary increase. Given that the MSA degree already provides a 10 percent salary increase, a National Board certified classroom teacher with a MSA can achieve a 22 percent pay increase without becoming an assistant principal.

• If a National Board Certified teacher becomes an administrator he or she will lose the 12 percent salary increase.

• Increased time demands, heightened accountability pressures, increased violence, and the overall changed nature of the role of the principal have compounded the problem of finding individuals to fill principalships.

• Principal Fellows Application submissions over the past four years have shown a dramatic decrease:

Solution:
The 2007 General Assembly should take the following steps to ensure that North Carolina’s pubic schools are led with competent, qualified and well-trained school based administrators on an ongoing basis:

1. Provide an additional salary step for each 3 years of experience as an assistant principal.

2. Allow National Board certified teachers who become administrators to keep their salary differential of 12 percent.

3. Increase master’s degree differential pay from 10 percent to 12 percent to equal the National Board certification amount.

4. Enhance the salary differential to at least 6 percent between teachers with master’s degrees and assistant principals to reflect the increased responsibilities of the position and to encourage qualified personnel become administrators.

copy of the Fact Sheet