Legislation

The AWSP Legislative Platform

Attract and Sustain a Highly-Effective Educator Workforce to Support Students

Research from the Wallace Foundation* shows that “it is difficult to envision a higher return on investment in K-12 education than the cultivation of high-quality school leadership.” Effective school leaders are critical for successful school environments. Strong building leaders positively impact student achievement, teacher retention, and school culture.

However, principal workload, increasingly unrealistic expectations, and job vulnerability are impacting current administrators’ willingness to stay and causing prospective administrators to choose other career paths.

Our state must unite to respond through a holistic and multi-faceted approach addressing current policies, legislation, and funding so that we can attract, prepare, and retain highly effective principals and assistant principals.

*Wallace Foundation Report

School principals need the 2024 Legislature to:

Increase funding for administrative internships to prepare and support new assistant principals and principals. (OSPI Decision Package)
Provide centralized, immediate support for current building administrators that focuses on three main areas: 1) behavior and discipline policies; 2) instructional models, pathways, and academic success; and 3) teacher evaluations. (OSPI Decision Package)
Update RCW 28A.405.230 and 28A.405.245 related to employment provisions for principals:
- Require the citation of specific evaluation criteria when transferring a principal or an assistant principal to a subordinate certificated position.
- Require that years of administrator experience count towards total years in future positions when a principal or assistant principal is transferred to a nonadministrative subordinate position.
- Apply employment provisions relating to principals to assistant principals as well.
Update the prototypical school funding model ratios for principals in order to meet increasingly complex social and academic needs. Improved allocations are critically needed to support students and to address increased responsibility in supervisory duties, especially in schools with special programs.
Fix the pay gap for assistant principals and principals in administrator salary allocation. Important gains have been made to address funding for teacher salaries, but the same has not been done for principals. Per diem pay for building administrators is often lower than per diem pay for teachers.