Principals have one of the most demanding jobs in education, and the salaries they receive affect their motivation and ability to perform academically.
But according to a recent survey A survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center reveals some troubling facts about school districts. In other words, there is a gap between the compensation principals and vice principals want and what they are currently receiving.
That leaves a gap of $23,500 for principals and $20,000 for assistant principals.
This gap between expectations and reality for school leaders can impact the longevity of their careers. Of the 592 school leaders who responded to the survey, 30% said they felt their compensation was not fair and wanted to leave their current job. Almost the same proportion, 27%, said they did not think their pay scale was fair, but that it did not affect their desire to stay or leave their position.
These gaps appear across educators. The same survey found a gap of about $20,000 for classroom teachers. $22,500 for SuperintendentVery consistent results.
The key figures are similar to the study results. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 94 percent of public school principals are “generally satisfied” with their jobs, while 25 percent said they would “take the job as soon as possible” if a higher paying opportunity arose. I agreed to quit. .
Allovue, an education finance software company, commissioned EdWeek Research Center to conduct a nationally representative survey of 1,855 teachers, school leaders and district leaders on a variety of school finance topics. This survey was conducted online in November 2023 and made public in April.
The decline in principals increased slightly. The change in recent years has been smaller than the increase in teacher attrition. A variety of factors have contributed to the problem, from increased student mental health issues to low academic achievement to chronic problems caused by increased student absences. School leaders have also become targets of online bullying by some student and parent communities through deepfakes and social media accounts.
Impact of Principal Salary Increase on Teachers
Frequent principal changes can destabilize schools and often create uncertainty for teachers and students. Student achievement scores may decline when principals leave A 2013 study based on administrative data from the North Carolina public school system found that it takes about two years to stabilize again. Because principal turnover rates for low-income students are higher compared to other schools, the effects tend to disproportionately affect low-income students.
Frequent principal turnover can also be detrimental. Teacher retention. If more principals leave because of low pay, teacher attrition could accelerate in schools that need quality educators most.
Conversely, effective principals, especially when placed in low-resource settings, can improve: School climate, teacher support through professional development, and parent involvement.
Raising principal salaries is not a priority.
School leaders could be persuaded to keep their positions longer through pay increases, but that doesn't seem to be a top priority at the moment.
Respondents across all groups surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center (district leaders, school leaders, teachers) generally wanted to allocate a much smaller percentage of their district budgets to administrator salaries. Only 2% of teachers supported raising salaries for administrators, compared to 22% of school leaders.
In a similar vein, 46% of teachers said a much smaller share of district budgets should be spent on hiring more administrators, while 22% of school leaders felt the same.
In contrast, the top spending priorities among all respondents were raising teacher salaries and hiring more teachers. Hiring teachers was followed by hiring paraprofessionals, social workers, and counselors, as well as investing resources to strengthen social-emotional learning.
School leaders may find it increasingly difficult to find resources for these hires as federal funding is cut off in September due to the pandemic. 54% of survey respondents worry that their school will not be able to fill positions at a salary level they can afford.
Educators also worry that high per-pupil costs due to low enrollment will take a toll on the services schools can provide to students.
The safety manager of a school district in Tennessee suggested that Congress cut off pandemic relief funds at individual districts rather than all at once.
“We don’t need it as much as we did in the beginning, but we still need it,” the manager wrote in response to the survey’s open-ended question.