Published Online in:
AERA Open
June 8, 2020

Lauren Bailes, University of Delaware
Sarah Guthery, Texax A&M University-Commerce

Recent scholarship highlights the many benefits of diversity among principals, including improved teacher retention and student outcomes. We use survival analysis to assess the probability and time to promotion for 4,689 assistant principals in Texas from 2001 to 2017. We find that race and gender are associated with the probability of promotion to school leadership. Holding education, experience, school level and urbanicity constant, Black principals are least likely to be promoted and wait longer for promotion when compared to white assistant principals. Additionally, findings suggest that even though women have over a year more experience on average before being promoted to assistant principal, they are less likely to be promoted to high school principal, and when they are, it is after a longer assistant principalship.

Read the full open-access article online here. 

Read the press release: "Black and Female Principal Candidates More Likely to Experience Delayed and Denied Promotions than White or Male Counterparts."