Aside from above-average retirement numbers, the state has a shrinking pool of qualified candidates. A July, 2000, study by the Oregon University System shows fewer people gaining administration certificates than during the early 1990s.

Why are districts having to work so hard to fill the principal’s chair?

Long hours, student discipline problems, hassles and headaches – the unwritten portion of a principal’s job description – keep candidates away. High school principals are especially hard to find.

New pressures from the emphasis on academic accountability, rather than school management, also are a factor. And when top-earning teachers can earn comparable salaries, there is little financial incentive to take on administrative chores.

“Part of the problem is that we talk too much about the negative aspects of a principal’s job and we don’t focus on the positive,” says Bill Beck, director of professional development of the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (COSA). Beck says a favorite saying of COSA Executive Director Ozzie Rose is that, “Most principals would volunteer to do 85 percent of the job for free – it’s the other 15 percent that drives them crazy!”

National surveys show that the median age of public school principals is around 50, so many who haven’t already opted for early retirement will be eligible to retire within five years. “Interim” and “acting principal” are rapidly becoming a new career for some retirees.

What are we doing to encourage aspiring principals? Some Oregon districts, including David Douglas and Gresham-Barlow, are using “grow your own” programs. (See story on page 7 of the Spring 2001 Critical Issues about the nationally acclaimed BELL program at David Douglas.) Those programs promote teachers to assistant principals and then on to the principal’s job.