Principals love their jobs, but some would ditch them immediately if a higher-paying gig came along, a new survey of the profession reveals.
Some 94 percent of principals say they are satisfied at their current schools. About a quarter, though, would leave as soon as possible if they got a better-paying job, according to the new principal-attrition and -mobility survey released this month by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Nearly 30 percent of principals say they don’t have as much enthusiasm for the job as they did when they started, and 16 percent say the stress and disappointment are just not worth it.
A 2015 report by the School Leaders Network estimated that a quarter of principals leave their schools each year, and nearly half leave in the third year. Such churn continues to be higher in charter schools than at traditional public schools, according to the NCES, and is also higher in schools serving larger percentages of poor students.
