Is a Principal Certificate a Passport to Salary Enhancement or to Administrative Positions in Schools?

Module by: National Council of Professors of Educational Administration

Summary: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an Illinois metropolitan program that prepares teachers for administrative and supervisory positions in schools by analyzing, over a 10-year period, its employment outcomes. Overall, from 1995 to 2005, 503 students graduated from the program, 451 of whom with Illinois principal certificates. By Fiscal Year 2007, 168 of the certified candidates had held administrative positions in public schools in Illinois; 38 had served as principals. This rate falls short of the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) 2.0 ratio of new certificates issued to new positions filled upon which educator supply and demand projections are made each year. It was recommended that the program continue strengthening practical experiences for its candidates, and expand networking relationships, not just within the city’s public school system, but also with suburban school districts. Candidates will then have exposure to more prospective employers. Because of the competitive nature of the administrative sector, it was also recommended that the program work with the schools to develop mechanisms for valorizing and utilizing the leadership skills and technical competencies of the ever-increasing numbers of teachers with administrative certificates, but employed in non-administrative positions.

Introduction

Several reports have pointed to the shortage of school principals in the state of Illinois and in the nation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had predicted that, through 2008, there would have been up to a 20% increase in vacancies for educational administrators (Akiba & Reichardt, 2002; Copland, 2001). The same Bureau (Ferrandino, 2001) had reported that 40% of principals working in US schools were nearing retirement. According to Harris (2001), that same year, it was estimated that the average principal was 50 years old and that 40% of principals would be eligible for retirement within the following five years.

However, in Illinois, the type of shortage that is reported could lead to some misinterpretation. As Table 1 shows, there appears to be more people certified as administrators each year than there are openings for administrative applicants (ISBE, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007). In the 2007 Supply and Demand report, the Illinois School Board of Education (ISBE, 2007) explained, “Due to competition from private schools and industry, it is desirable to produce at least two people for every opening to ensure an adequate supply of quality applicants for Illinois public schools” (p. 9). In this perspective, the State of Illinois has been exceeding the ratio of 2.0 each year since Fiscal Year 2003.

Table 1

Production of Administrative Staff in the State of Illinois, 2003 to 2007

The numbers reported in Table 1 do not include provisional administrative certificates issued to individuals who hold administrative certificates from other states. Table 1 does not show, either, the ratio of cumulative numbers of certified people who are not hired the following year to the number of first timers hired, which, over the 2003-2007 period alone, would be 8.6 by the close of 2007. Could this trend of administrative staff production, and even if a substantial group of current principals were to retire, lead one to speculate that the job market might soon saturate? The same apprehension was raised by Baker, Orr and Young (2007) when they observed, “Nationally, postsecondary institutions appear to be producing credentials at a rate that far exceeds anticipated turnover. In 2003 alone, nearly 16,000 master’s degrees in educational leadership were granted, enough to lead 16% of America’s schools” (p. 300).

As clarified in ISBE’ 2007 Educator Supply and Demand report, this apparent over-production is needed for the quality and competitiveness of the educational system. The question is whether the schools are adequately equipped to effectively utilize the managerial and leadership skills brought by holders of administrative certificates who are employed in non-administrative positions. ISBE’s 2007 report clarifies the discrepancy between this apparent over-supply and the limited demand as follows,

In order to be able to say whether there is an over- or under-supply of educators, it is necessary to first determine whether or not enough educators are being produced each year. While an under-supply would definitely indicate an area of educator shortage, the converse is not necessarily true. For example, while there is an abundance of Administrative and Guidance Counselors credentials issued each year, many districts still find it difficult to fill vacancies in those positions. (ISBE, 2007, p. 9).

Roza, Celio, Harvey, and Wishon (2003) concur with the ISBE’s assessment, and argue that the perception that there is a shortage of principals may be a matter of interpretation. According to the authors, it cannot be questioned that there are more people certified to fill principal positions than there are vacancies. Therefore, it seems pertinent to investigate how many graduates seek and find administrative positions, and how many may not even apply. Should the majority of graduates not become interested in administrative positions, would the eventuality have implications, if any, for a general administration program? Any attempt to answer these questions must take into account the professional goals and intentions of the students as they enroll into general administration programs. Do the students’ goals and the goals of their academic programs match? For instance, the general administration program at hand unequivocally describes its purpose as follows:

The General Administration Option is designed to prepare individuals for educational administrative and supervisory positions and to upgrade the skills of those individuals who presently serve in such positions. Upon completion of the program, individuals will qualify for careers in educational administration, including: Elementary or Secondary School Assistant Principal; Elementary or Secondary School Principal; High School Dean; Department Chair; and District Director of Curriculum.

Levine (2005) cautions faculty and administrators that such a goal may not be realistic as it fails to consider students who are not interested in administrative positions. Levine argues that not all students of educational leadership programs aspire, or are disposed, to becoming school administrators. He classifies students in educational leadership into three categories: 1) current and future school administrators, 2) teachers earning degree primarily for salary enhancement, and 3) future researchers in school leadership.

What is more, for students aspiring to become school administrators, obtaining such positions has become less predictable; it is no longer enough to graduate from a general administration program, become certified by the state, and start applying for principal positions. For instance, in the Chicago public school system in Illinois, another phase has been added to the route to the principalship. In 2003, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) established the Office of Principal Preparation and Development (OPPD) as part of its Human Capital Initiative. In accordance with CPS Board Policy # 04-0225-PO1 of 2-25-04, “All aspiring CPS principals are required to demonstrate their instructional and managerial leadership through a series of performance-based assessments in order to be eligible for a CPS principalship” (CPS, 2006). To become eligible for a principal position within the metropolitan public schools, aspiring principals go through a complex selection system that includes completing a self-assessment package, submitting a formal application, writing an essay, and putting together a principal competencies portfolio.

The question is whether it would make a difference for the program’s strategic planning, curricular decision-making, student advising, and faculty development, if information on such post-graduation added hurdles were consistently incorporated in the program’s mission. With this clarification in view, the purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the general administration program at this medium-size metropolitan university by analyzing its employment outcomes. The term “general administration” will be used interchangeably with the term “principal.”

Three times each year, in Fall, Spring, and Summer, several tens of candidates complete the program and qualify for the Illinois Type 75 General Administrative Certificate (Type 75). Of the alumni/ae who graduated from 1995 to 2005, it became interesting to identify how many obtained administrative positions, and how many did not. It also seemed necessary to ask how long after graduation the students obtained administrative employment. What factors helped graduates obtain administrative employment, and what obstacles did they have to overcome? How has the recent creation of the Office of Principal Preparation and Development by the metropolitan school district impacted the intentions of graduates intending to seek administrative positions in the system? The researcher hopes that answers to those questions will benefit current students in the General Administration program in preparing them for careers more effectively, and faculty, in setting their teaching priorities. The study also attempted to address the role of teacher leadership. More specifically, if graduates of a general administration program do not become school administrators, are schools ready to effectively incorporate teachers with principal certificates in school leadership?

Method

Post-graduation information for all General Administration alumni/ae who attended the General Administration program from 1995 to 2005 was collected from files kept in the Department and the Office of Records and Registration at the university. The information was then entered into an Excel spreadsheet. Using the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) Educator Certification System (https://secqa1.isbe.net/ecs/) database, a teaching employment history (teaching and administrative history, certification tests passed, areas of qualification) was queried for each alumnus. The query results were added to the spreadsheet and summarized.

Then, researchers contacted by telephone 40 alumni/ae representing all 10 years of this report, and sent them informed consent forms to participate in a post-graduation employment outcome survey. Those who consented to participate in the survey were sent a semi-structured questionnaire which asked them to elaborate on their employment status, as well as the extent to which the program had prepared them for administrative and leadership positions. Specifically, the survey asked the graduates to a) verify their post-graduation employment status , b) share challenges and opportunities they had while seeking employment in educational administration, c) share reasons for not seeking employment in educational administration, and d) evaluate the skills and knowledge acquired in the program in relation to the graduates’ employability. The survey questions were based on the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Questions about instructional supervisory skills were based on Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon’s (2004) tasks of supervision. Twenty-free respondents returned the questionnaires.

In April and May 2006, one administrator, one faculty member, three current students in the General Administration program, and four alumni who graduated from the program were asked to review the questions for content and relevancy. Their comments and recommendations were incorporated in the questionnaire.

Demographic and employment information obtained (e.g., time from graduation to obtaining an administrative position, number of positions held, certificates held, etc.) for each graduation class and all groups taken together was summarized in tables. The Analysis ToolPak of Microsoft Excel 2003 was used for the descriptive calculations. Where possible, summaries were grouped by gender, school level taught (K-6, K-8, high school) prior to admission to the program. Responses to open-ended questions were summarized by questions. Conclusions were drawn on the effectiveness of the general administration program at this Illinois metropolitan university as it relates its graduates’ employment outcomes.

Results

From 1995 to 2005, 503 teachers who attended the program graduated with a master’s degree and/or certificate in general administration (Table 2). The 503 graduates are then broken down by certification status within the Illinois State Board of Education certification system: 52 without recorded certificates and 451 with recorded certificates. For the 52 graduates without certificates, lack of certification record could mean several things. The first plausible explanation is that the graduate failed the Illinois General Administration Certification test. Today, this situation can no longer exist; the program’s policy is that a student will not graduate (i.e., will not receive the master’s degree and/or certificate in general administration) if s/he has not passed the state’s administrative certification test. The second scenario is for students who changed their names, social security numbers, or other identifiers after graduation, such as in the case of marriage, and therefore, cannot be tracked using identifiers on file. The third scenario would be of people who, for reasons of employment (such as being employed in a school system that does not require an Illinois certificate), never registered their certificate with the Illinois State Board of Education.

This study is chiefly concerned with the 451 graduates who have registered their administrative certificates with the Illinois State Board of Education. As Table 2 shows, eight of the certified graduates did not have a teaching history in the public school system in Illinois. By the end of fiscal year 2007, 275 of the 451 certified graduates (or 61%) with a teaching history in public schools, had never been assigned an administrative position in public schools in Illinois. Overall, by the close of FY 2007, 168 graduates with registered certificates (or 37.3%) had held an administrative position in public schools in Illinois at least once since graduation. Some graduating classes have been hired to administrative positions in higher proportions than other classes. For instance, the ratio of certificates to administrative positions for the 1996 and 1997 classes is 1.9 and 1.8, respectively. By contrast, the ratio is much higher for the 2000 class, at 3.6, for instance.

Table 2

1995-2006 Certified and Not Certified General Administration Graduates by Graduation Year

*Numbers include 2 students who graduated in Spring 1995.

Another way to look at those ratios is to use the years graduates were certified in comparison to the years they were hired to administrative positions (Table 3). It must be noted that, although a number of students graduated in 1995, the first principal certificates for the group studied were not issued until Fiscal Year 1996. Of the 14 graduates who were issued principal certificates in 1996, six were hired to administrative positions by FY 2007, or a ratio of 2.4. The best ratio was for candidates who were issued certificates in 1997 and 1998; the ratio of certificates to hires was 1.8 and 1.7, respectively. By contrast, for the 56 certificates issued in FY 2002, the ratio climbed to 3.5. The analysis of ratios for certificates issued in FY 2005 and beyond was too premature for this study, as the graduates had been on the job market for fewer than two years by the conclusion of data collection.

Table 3

Graduates Hired to Administrative Positions by Certification Years

*Hired to administrative position prior to receiving certificate or during same year

In the following paragraphs, the nature of administrative assignments held by the 168 graduates with registered certificates is analyzed. Since graduation, of the 451 graduates with administrative certificates, the 168 administrators (37.3%) have assumed a wide range of administrative positions in public schools in Illinois (Table 4). The 10-year ratio of certified graduates to administrators is 3.0. The largest share of administrative positions in public schools was at its highest level in Fiscal Year 2006, when the program’s contingents accounted for 141 of the Illinois public school administrative workforce, including 68 assistant principals, 26 principals, five area coordinators, five district or assistant district superintendents, and 17 directors or assistant directors, including three directors of special education. In the following paragraphs, we looked at the relationship between completing the general administration certificate at this school and assuming the position of principal.

Table 4

All Administrative Positions Held by Graduates by Fiscal Year

How many principals has the program produced since 1995? Of the 451 certified graduates, 38 (8.4%) have been principals in Illinois public schools at least one fiscal year (Table 5). Some classes have produced principals in higher rates than others. For instance, from the 24 graduates who were certified during FY 1997, five (20.83%) became principals over time. It took them an average 3.6 years to become principals. The following certification class (FY 1998) produced a slightly lower rate of principals (19.61%), and in a longer time (5.1 years). As many as 50% of these principals (19) were promoted from assistant principals.

Table 5

Certified Graduates Who Became Principals by Average Time to Reach Position and Transition from Assistant Principalship

*FY 1996 Certificates include one issued in FY 1995

**FY 2005 Certificates include seven issued in FY 2006

Whether being an assistant principal is an end in itself or a route to the principalship is reported below. The 19 assistant principals who were promoted to the “principal” position represented only 17.9% of all assistant principals working in Illinois public schools until 2007 (Table 6). Some graduating classes had a larger share of that number than others. For example, the certification class of 2000 produced nine assistant principals; four of them (44.4%) were later promoted to the principal position.

Table 6

Certified Graduates Who Became Assistant Principals by Average Time to Obtain Position and by Promotion to the Principalship