We know principals and assistant principals are working longer and harder than ever before — and under more stress too. As principals have dealt with COVID, contact tracing, and masking, other things have had to give. Anecdotally, we've heard from countless principals that it's time to throw in the towel — they love the job, they just can't do it anymore or deal with what it's doing to them. We are very concerned about a summer of even more principal churn, which is bad for kids (see the Power of the Principal video at the bottom of the page).
To collect some more data about job satisfaction and ideas for changing the role of the principal, we surveyed our members in February 2022. We also repeated some questions from our
2018 pay gap and working conditions survey. We had over 600 responses. We've highlighted some common sentiments on this page, and you'll see a link to the full results below.
Principals and assistant principals have always had a tough job, and they welcome that. School leadership isn't without its bumps and bruises, but it's incredibly rewarding, and people choose it to make a difference. Our job is to make school leadership more manageable, more enjoyable, more rewarding, and more possible to give our students the strong, caring, and consistent leadership they deserve.
Want to see all the data and responses? Head to the survey results to take a look for yourself at over 600 responses.