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Get your certification first. Take on admin/leadership tasks. Use your Cohort from certification to build contacts. Consider alternative and charter schools to get your foot in the door. Consider adjacent districts.
I think it's harder for women to get the chance to do anything that's an institutional leadership position. Can't tell you the path exactly, but just push onward and looks like you'd be coming from a fitting background. Be a boss about it and it will come to you.
In general, I think it is a bit political. You have to play the game. Know how to schmooze the right people, say the right people, run in the right circles in any given district.
In some cases, that might be advantageous to men in other cases to women.
I think it depends more on the person. In our district we have all female principals except for one. The one at our school took off running from day one. But, she does have a strong personality.
There are more female Principals in our district and several districts around us.
I’m my area, you generally start as an AP, then move up after a few years. The vast majority of principals in my district and surrounding areas are women.
I felt thwarted in my attempts to attain an elementary principal position, but I was trying to do this in the NJ independent school market where I suspect these hiring decisions are more political and based on more backward, conservative ideologies. For example, a school head called one of my references and mentioned his concern that [I] was so smart…possibly too smart to relate to parents. But what likely worked against me at least as much was that I was single and didn’t have children of my own. I’ll never know…but I do know the person he hired (my colleague and personal nemesis who the teachers at our school greatly disliked) was willing to move there with her husband. I wouldn’t have been able to move (it was going to be an hour commute) so it’s possible that was the deal breaker. She and I were equally ranked in our mid-level administrative positions but she had far less experience in school leadership and in the classroom than I did.
Another time, more recently, I didn’t advance to final selection as a candidate because I didn’t have experience running a school in a pandemic. This was during the spring of 2020… Who would have?? I thought it was very shortsighted. As far as what you need, it varies from state to state. Public schools require principal certification and independent schools want experience, they want to diversify their leadership ranks, and they tend to prefer degrees from high ranking universities. Beyond that, you need to be willing to work almost 24/7 and you need very strong emotional regulation, diplomatic, and social skills. Being a visionary and able to lead by consensus is a huge plus. In my view, a strong grasp of curriculum and teaching and child development is vital.
In my two decades in education, I’ve only had 1 male principal and 2 male vice principals.
In my district some people go through the route of title 1 teacher, assistant, Principal