Principal Recruitment and Retention: Best Practices for Meeting the Challenges Today(Bridging Theory and Practice)

Every year, an average of 20% of schools replace their principals. This book will inform and enhance the process of recruiting new personnel with its insights and practical suggestions for a successful search. This book also offers current thinking and research to help school boards and policy makers retain the professional leaders they have. This book is a must-read for principals and board members alike. While the departure of ineffective principals can be beneficial for schools, frequent turnover negatively impacts students’ achievements. Today, when effective and powerful educational leadership is critical for quality teaching and student achievement, the numbers of principal candidates are diminishing and of incumbents waning. This book explores the central issues of principal development, appointment, and retention policies and practices. Its chapters ask what school boards, policymakers, and principals can do to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, stability, equity, and inclusiveness to assure the longevity of school leaders within the system. Principal Recruitment and Retention presents the research findings of seventeen international scholars in the field over ten chapters. These scholars survey their respective situations from their home countries of United States of America, New Zealand, Israel and Turkey. The problems are similar; the solutions will be edifying.

Table of Contents:
Series Editor's Introduction Editor's Introduction Chapter 1: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Principal Recruitment: Best Practices – Dustin Miller & Belinda Gimbert– The Ohio State University Chapter 2: Principal Recruitment in New Zealand: The Role of Boards of Trustees - Gülay Erin Dalgiç, University of Auckland Chapter 3: Towards a Solution to Solve the Shortage of Principals In Israel by Recruiting Anglo Former Principals – Michael Reichel, Michlalah Jerusalem College, Israel Chapter 4: Strengthening Educational Leadership Preparation Programs to Better Prepare Principals to Aid Retention - Kathleen M. W. Cunningham, Henry Tran, Suzy Hardie, Rinice K. Sauls, & Tammy S. Taylor – University of South Carolina Chapter 5: We’re Hiring, But Will They Come? The Challenges of Recruiting Racially Diverse Principal Candidates in Rural Schools - Simone Gause, University of South Carolina; Henry Tran, University of South Carolina; & David Buckman, Augusta University Chapter 6: Retaining Principals: What Works Most Effectively? – Belinda Gimbert & Dustin Miller – The Ohio State University Chapter 7: Who Wants to be a Principal? Recruiting Instructional Leaders – Haim Shaked, Hemdat College of Education, Sdot Negev, Israel Chapter 8: Challenges Facing Principals: Voices from the Field – David Scanga & Renee Sedlack, Saint Leo University Chapter 9: Initiatives to Support Principals from their Preparation Program to On-the-Job Mentoring to Proficiency during Induction in the Early Years of their Careers – Shmuel Shenhav, Michlalah Jerusalem College Chapter 10: A Proposal to Enhance Retention of School Principals in Türkiye - Pinar Ayyildiz, Ankara Medipol University & Köksal Banoglu, Turkish Ministry of National Education About the Editor & Contributors Index

About the Author :
Chanina Rabinowitz served as a school principal on three continents. His doctorate is in School Leadership and Policy Studies from Loyola University of Chicago. He taught graduate students at Michlalah College, Jerusalem, and English at a public high school there. He directs and teaches a teacher training program at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Michael Reichel is an adjunct professor in the Leadership and Management of Educational Systems program at Michlalah Jerusalem College and Orot College. He was a school administrator in Jewish elementary and middle schools for over 20 years in the USA as well as Jerusalem, Israel. His research interests include management leadership, theories in educational administration, bridging theory with practice in educational administration programs, and recruitment strategies for hiring qualified principals.

Review :
In Principal Recruitment and Retention, editors Chanina Rabinowitz and Michael Reichel have assembled a slate of international scholars to frame the world-wide issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of school principals. Each chapter includes but goes beyond research by unpacking systematically the barriers associated with recruiting and retaining school principals by offering promising practices that school systems and leadership preparation programs can frame actionable steps to stop the incessant cycle of leadership attrition. This world-wide approach is a first of its kind and surely this book will become a trusted reference for those who recruit aspiring leaders but more importantly, for the work needed to prepare and retain leaders for the complexities of schools. Principal Recruitment and Retention is a timely and much-needed book. Finding qualified principals and supporting them on the job is critical and a worldwide issue. In my country, there is a dire need to create fair policies for recruitment and to provide support to principals in the public sector schooling system. This edited volume provides many fresh ideas on the subject with practical strategies from authors in diverse settings. Principal Recruitment and Retention affords us a rare opportunity to examine a single, complex issue from multiple perspectives. This book presents a purposeful blending of theory and praxis into a lens for investigating solutions to a very real educational issue. The similarities and idiosyncrasies of the needs, habits, and realities of different countries and locales – the United States, Turkiye, Israel, and New Zealand – are examined as each struggles to attain the same goal. Recruiting and retaining talented principals is certainly a big challenge in schools in the New York metropolitan area. Research is axiomatic. Schools need talented principals, efforts need to be enhanced to attract the very best, and programs and practices need to be implemented to encourage retention. Principal Recruitment and Retention is an important addition to the literature. Each chapter explores these issues with a grounding in extant research in the field with practical suggestions that will be helpful to many schools and districts. The editors did a marvelous job recruiting a diverse cadre of contributors. The importance of principal leadership for the success of schools has been well-documented in international literature. At the same time, many schools worldwide have been struggling to recruit qualified principals and retain them in the job. This book brings highly relevant and exciting cases from various national contexts together and expands the current knowledge base on the recruitment and retention of school principals. I want to congratulate the editors and authors for their great effort to provide such a guiding source for educational leaders and policymakers around the world.