In spring 2025, the authors surveyed 207 American School District Panel member districts about principal pipelines, preparations, and supports to learn how districts invest in their principal pipelines. The authors also examined the prevalence of professional development for assistant principals and sitting principals in small, medium, and large school districts targeted at building and strengthening high-quality district school leaders.

How Large and Small Districts Develop Their Principals

Selected Findings from the American School District Panel

Anna Shapiro, Heather L. Schwartz, Samantha E. DiNicola

ResearchPublished Sep 2, 2025

In spring 2025, the authors surveyed 207 American School District Panel member districts about principal pipelines, preparations, and supports. In this report, the authors describe the principal pipeline in school districts across the United States and the prevalence of professional development (PD) targeted at building and strengthening high-quality school leaders within individual districts. These findings can inform state policymakers who are grappling with school leadership shortages by describing (1) where districts tend to find principals and (2) how that process varies by district characteristics and the types of PD that are most prevalent and for whom, including which PD opportunities districts should invest in for the future. These findings may also help universities that are redesigning pre-service leadership training programs by identifying gaps in leadership training offered by school districts.

This report presents findings from the 207 school districts that answered the survey, which was fielded to a nationally representative sample of school districts in March 2025 through May 2025. To learn how districts invest in their principal pipelines—both for assistant principals and sitting principals—school districts were asked about six types of PD, ranging from less-resource-intensive offerings (paid time for conferences, professional learning communities, and trainings workshops) to more-resource-intensive offerings (principal supervisors, principal mentors, and professional coaching). In the survey, districts were asked whether they offered these types of PD for each of three roles: assistant principals, novice principals, and veteran principals.

Key Findings

  • As of the 2024–2025 school year, urban and large school districts (those serving more than 10,000 students) hired most of their school principals from within the district, while small districts (serving fewer than 3,000 students) were more likely to hire principals from outside the district.
  • Large school districts were more likely than small school districts to offer most of the six types of school principal PD addressed in the survey.
  • Larger school districts offered lower-cost PD to sitting principals and assistant principals alike but concentrated their high-cost PD on sitting principals only.
  • Small districts offered less PD overall. When they did offer PD, small districts favored sitting principals over assistant principals.
  • Principals and assistant principals in small school districts were more likely to choose their own PD than those in medium (serving 3,000 to 10,000 students) and large school districts.
  • Small districts favored less-resource-intensive PD forms for principals.

Recommendations

  • In larger districts, district leaders should invest in coaching for assistant principals. More-resource-intensive programs, such as coaching, have been shown to be more effective for developing high-quality school leaders.
  • In small districts, district leaders should focus on pre-service training for aspiring principals from all roles.
  • Because smaller districts are less likely to have assistant principals, districts should strengthen their own principal pipelines by developing their own programs in collaboration with other small school districts or connecting teachers to state-supported opportunities, which would reduce their reliance on outside hires for new principal roles.
  • Given resource constraints, districts should consider targeting more-resource-intensive PD to aspiring or novice principals.
  • Districts should also consider peer coaching models in which principals who receive more PD provide coaching and mentorship to other school leaders.

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Shapiro, Anna, Heather L. Schwartz, and Samantha E. DiNicola, How Large and Small Districts Develop Their Principals: Selected Findings from the American School District Panel. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-35.html.
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This research was sponsored by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.

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