Half of NY State School Principals to Retire in Five Years: Survey Confirms Crisis

An independent survey released recently reveals that 48 percent of the state’s current school principals intend to retire by the year 2006 and 74 percent by 2011, validating education leaders’ concerns of the looming crisis facing the schools and communities of New York State.

Conducted by a research team at the University at Albany and sponsored by the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS), the report challenges state leaders to attract quality educators to the principalship to fill the emerging gap.

“With three-quarters of current principals planning to retire in the next 10 years, the report strongly calls for strategies to encourage and support a younger, more diverse group of educators,” said SAANYS Executive Director Richard Thomas.

The 142-item survey was sent to a random sample of 1,485 New York state principals (excluding New York City) of elementary, middle and high schools, with 45 percent responding.

Other findings include:

•Nearly all the principals (96 percent) said they were increasingly held accountable for student achievement and test scores.

•More than 80 percent said they were increasingly involved with the use of data to improve student achievement.

•85 percent reported increased involvement with safety and crisis management issues during the past three years.

•75 percent indicated that the “fragmentation” of their time was a “high” concern.

•71 percent indicated moderate to high concern over funding for and integration of technology into instructional programs.

•City school principals spent nearly twice as much time on student supervison than their rural counterparts.

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