Principal Attrition and Mobility

Results From the 2012–13 Principal Follow-up Survey

Of the 114,330 school principals (public and private) who were principals during the 2011–12 school year, 78 percent remained at the same school during the following school year (“stayers”), 6 percent moved to a different school (“movers”), and 12 percent left the principalship (“leavers”). In addition, 5 percent of principals were from schools that reported the principal had left, but the schools were unable to report the current occupational status of the principal (“other”) (table 1). Among principals who left the principalship in 2012–13, some 38 percent of public school principals and 30 percent of private school principals left due to retirement (tables 10 and 11).