Women now on par with men in terms of principal numbers

If you asked the average person on the street about whether school principals are typically men or women, most would consider historical patterns and conclude that the majority are men. But a report released in July by the National Center for Education Statistics suggests that, when it comes to the principalship, women are now on par with men.

Looking at data for the 2007–08 school year, the report shows that 50 percent of public school principals and 53 percent of private school principals were female that year. That’s a big change from 20 years earlier, when more than three quarters of all principals, both private and public, were male. But it caps a long-running trend of stair-step increases in the percentage of women who hold the job. However, a telling statistic in the report shows that nearly 60 percent of elementary principals are women, but only 28.5 percent of secondary principals are women.

Other interesting statistics from this 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey  report include:

• Public school principals earn an average of $85,700 a year, compared to $57,500 for private school principals.
• Among public school principals, 61 percent held a master’s degree; 29 percent held an education specialist or professional diploma; 1 percent held a bachelor’s degree; and 8 percent held doctorates.
• And, as has long been the case, an overwhelming majority of principals—81 percent—were white.
• The average annual salary of public school principals was $85,700, with secondary school principals earning an average $5,100 more than their elementary school counterparts.
• Public school principals had, on average, 7.5 years of experience as a principal of which 4.2 years were spent in their current school.
• On average, public school principals reported spending 58.4 hours per week on all school-related activities, including 20.8 of those hours interacting with students.

—“Women on Par With Men in Principalship, Says Report,” by Debra Viadero, ‘Inside School Research’ blog, Education Week online, July 1, 2009.