The Process of Principal Selection Around the World

Principals are essential to any school community, acting as a liaison between the school community and the district’s educational leadership. This puts them in a position of central importance to the creation and implementation of public education policies.

Since they play such a central role, if principals are not aligned with their government’s education policies, the chances of a policy being effective in that community are drastically reduced. For example, if the government increases the number of hours students have to stay in school per day, and the principal is not convinced of the effectiveness of such a policy, said principal will be the first to try to reverse the policy and the community will follow their leader’s steps. As Olavo Nogueira Filho points out in “Pontos Fora da Curva,” this active leadership is essential for school districts to have “systematic leadership”—principals and teachers who understand and lead the process of policy implementation, rather than just follow orders given by the ministries of education. This is essential for the improvement of the educational system. Additionally, principals are responsible for managing activities and school staff, observing teachers and evaluating their performance, and helping the staff grow and improve according to the necessities of the students and the institution.

Considering all these responsibilities and the important role a principal has to play, it is necessary for governments to select candidates through a process that considers all needed skills, in order for them to effectively contribute to and lead the school community. The process would also need to consider the necessities of the particular community for which the principal is being hired, as each community has different needs.

Below, I analyze these different processes for principal selection. I will point out what seem to be some effective and ineffective aspects of different processes around the globe, while arguing for the best practices considering the current international literature and benchmarks on the topic.

Fostering School Leaders

Early identification and investment in future school leaders is essential in creating a pool of competent future candidates for the position of school leaders. Not only that, but government investment in the professional development of teachers and principals could add social prestige to the position, which could in turn sway the most promising students to pursue careers as principals. The school principal selection process in Singapore focuses on this aspect. In the country, there are three paths a teacher can take in their career ladder: the leadership track, the teaching track, and the specialist track. Becoming a principal is the top position of the leadership track. This aims to ensure that principals are only those who have the necessary skills and experience to occupy the position and effectively contribute to the school. Selected educators take part in programs that aim to prepare them to rise to the position of principals. One of them is the Leaders in Education Program, a six-month long program offered to vice principals at the Nanyang Technological University, which aims to align the future principal’s abilities with the national curriculum of the country. Those who are considered promising are fully funded by the Ministry of Education of Singapore to take part in the program.

Identifying these leaders is necessary, but offering accessible courses for professional development is also essential for them to learn how to effectively lead a school. Singapore, with their governmental program to support future school leaders, does a great job when it comes to offering opportunities for leaders to grow. However, as their own research shows, there needs to be a greater effort when it comes to ensuring that all potential school leaders have access to opportunities that the government offers. This could be done by prioritizing teachers who are in more vulnerable financial situations or who belong to historically disadvantaged groups.

Incentives for potential principals

It is essential that countries also invest in the principal career so that it is attractive to the public. as this will potentially impact the quality of school leadership in the long term. The impact of salary increase on test scores is very neutral, with some studies showing results, but most of them not finding a direct association between the two. However, salary has been shown to have an impact on teachers’ motivation and career attractivity, which could potentially bring better prepared professionals into the career in the long term, which, considering that most principals are teachers with more years of experience and training in school administration, improve the quality of candidates for the principal position. It is also important to make the principal position itself attractive, in order for the teachers to aim to become principals.

Education financing

Another action that can impact school principal quality, especially when it comes to big, federative countries in which the principal selection process is highly decentralized, is to tie some of the school financing budget to the improvement of educational attainment.

By tying school financing systems to educational results, districts and states are incentivized to change and improve their laws in order to receive more money from the federal government, and to work continuously to improve education within the region. One great example is from the state of Ceará, Brazil, in which subjecting part of the local government funding to improvement in educational results resulted in local governors and mayors prioritizing selection of school principals and officials that would actually be able to improve educational results in their municipalities, which caused an improvement in the general educational results in the state, as explained by Nogueira in “Pontos Fora da Curva.”

More recently, this is also being seen in Brazil as a whole, with the creation of a law that subjects part of the government funds for education to several indexes of quality of education. One of the factors is that states need to have a merit based principal selection process, including public selection, tests, interviews and elections with merit based factors involved.

Application Criteria

Education

Determining a specific degree that would be ideal for future principals to have is impossible, which is shown by the multitude of degrees that are accepted by different countries for candidates to the principal position.  In Brazil, bachelor’s degrees in areas related to pedagogy are enough to qualify one to apply for principal positions. Similarly, in Colombia, it is required for candidates to have a superior normalist degree, which resembles a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy or a K-12 teaching certificate.

However, it is important that these principals have at least a grad-school level course related to school management and leadership — a requirement in several districts both in the US and in Portugal. Even if these principals have their development fostered by the government, it is important to set this standard in order to guarantee that all the candidates have gone through an extensive training in how to manage a school.

Experience

Three to five years of teaching experience seems to be the rule for most countries, and that seems appropriate as long as it is not the only requirement for a teacher to apply for the position. I believe that such experience is definitely invaluable for those applying to be a principal, as, by having experience these candidates will have been exposed to different school settings and policies, which might help them contribute to the school community that they intend to join.

However, it is imperative that these teachers go through the aforementioned school leadership capacitation process and have at least some education on school leadership, so they have been trained for the principal position and do not go into the position with no knowledge about school management.

Background check

It is essential that the principal selection process checks the background of the candidates who are applying. With such processes it is possible to recognize attempts to embellish one`s curriculum (if they have charges for falsifying documents or information) or recognize people who might be unfit to lead certain educational institutions. This seems to happen in most countries, but is strongly enforced in U.S. districts.

Selection process

Get-to-know

Throughout the process, it is important that the selection team gets to know the candidate beyond just their curriculum.  This could constitute an interview that goes deeper into the candidate’s experiences and ideas for their leadership term at the school. The interview would also allow the team to align expectations with the candidates on the school's environment, priorities and circumstances.

Practical plans for the school community

In the process of principal selection, it is important that practical proposals for changes in the community are analyzed and presented through the process. Portugal does this by requesting candidates to submit an intervention project for the school they are applying to. Such an aspect of the process would allow the principals to think critically about the community even before they take on the position, and allow the selection committee to see how their qualifications reflect on actual plans and interventions for the school.

Election or modified process which involves the community

The principal selection process needs to involve the school community, be it through election, as in Portugal and some states in Brazil, or by involving parents, students and teachers in discussions about the criteria and the expectations for the applicants. That would, as already discussed, allow the members of the community to see the principals not solely as representatives of the government infiltrated in their school, but rather as someone who they chose to lead their school, and someone who they trust will do a good job as a school leader.

My decision to do research about principal selection came from the realization that it is extremely challenging to improve education in schools if they do not have competent and engaged leadership. By looking into these international benchmarks, I was hoping to learn more about different countries’ strategies to select principals, and to share my findings with whoever has some interest in the subject.

More information about the selection process within each country has been appended below.

Country level analysis

Brazil

In Brazil, just like in most federative countries, the principal selection system is highly decentralized. There are some national directives provided by the national government, but most of the decisions and the implementation of educational processes are made by state and city governments. In most states, the state governments have designed a  process for the state schools, and the municipalities may adhere to this process partially or in totality. Among the many processes that different state governments employ, there are three main processes to select school principals: the indication process, the election and the public selection process.

Political Indication

In this process, local politicians indicate someone for the position of principal for schools in the region without using an application process to select candidates that are best suited for the position. This process can have many shortcomings. If politicians are not necessarily interested in improving local education, they can use the indication to principal positions in a clientelist way to gain support, or to indicate family members and friends that are not the best suited candidates for the position. For a similar reason, this process does not always take into consideration the candidate's skills, or the specific needs of the school community for which the principal is being indicated, which can adversely affect learning and the relationship between actors from inside the school and community members .

Political indication is not always a terrible process, and at times can lead to an improvement in educational results at the local level. One great example is from the state of Ceará, in which subjecting part of the local government funding to improvement in educational results resulted in local governors prioritizing selection of school principals and officials that would actually be able to improve educational results in their municipalities, which caused an improvement in the general educational results in the state, as explained by Nogueira in “Pontos Fora da Curva.”

Election

In this process, the school community — composed of teachers,staff members, as well as students and parents — votes among pre-selected (this pre-selection can be made through interviews and/or tests, or even political indication in some cases) candidates to the position of school leader for that specific school. This model is defended by the idea that, when the principal or school leader is elected by the community, it repurposes the function of the principal as that of someone who should servethe community who elected them, breaking the logic that the principal is solely a representative of the state in the school.

However, one problem that may arise is that the principals might not get to the position because of their competence or capacity to lead the school, but rather by other factors such as popularity in the local community and populist promises rather than competency to produce results for the school. Not only that, but this process can sometimes be flawed, as voting processes, depending on the level of security they have, can be manipulated by authorities, making it a sort of political indication camouflaged in a fake election.

Public Selection

In this process, principals are selected to the position through a regular process of admission for any public position. Candidates are evaluated through tests that can be objective or discursive. They can also undergo a title evaluation, to see if they are apt to take on the role that they are applying to. This process makes the principal position no longer part of the teacher career, but rather a specific position inside the public service for which anyone who is qualified can apply.

Such a process is argued to be positive for the selection of principals, as it subordinates the position to merit and knowledge about school leadership, which might be reflected in the school’s educational results after the new principal takes leadership.

It is important to notice that, in 2023, a new law on basic education financing was approved by the Brazilian congress. This law subjects part of the government funds for education to several indexes of quality of education. One of the factors is that states need to have a merit based principal selection process, which includes public selection, tests, interviews and elections with merit based factors involved. If a state does not have a process such as that it may offer a certification program, a five-day long course on school management, so these states may be able to receive funds. Whether this five-day long course is effective is an ongoing debate.

Singapore

In Singapore, there are three paths a teacher can take in their career ladder: the leadership track, the teaching track and the specialist track. Becoming a principal is the top position of the leadership track. This policy aims to ensure that principals are only those who have the necessary skills and experience to occupy the position and effectively contribute to the school. Educators are selected and groomed to become principals early on in their career. If an educator is shown to be promising in school leadership, they take part in programs that aim to prepare them to rise to the position of principals. One of them is the Leaders in Education Program, a six-month long program offered to vice principals at the Nanyang Technological University, which aims to align the future principal’s abilities with the national curriculum of the country. Those who are considered promising are fully funded by the Ministry of Education of Singapore to take part in the program.

In addition, the actual process to become a principal takes into consideration evaluations, professional portfolios, a district level panel interview and recommendations.

An issue with this structure, however, is the excessive selectivity for these programs. That is, these programs have the objective of preparing and supporting potential educational leaders that can positively impact the country’s education, yet research ordered by the country’s ministry of education showed that the program is only attracting 5 percent of its intended population, which means that there are many potential leaders that can be positively impacted by the program that are currently unable to access it.

Colombia

In Colombia, similar to the other countries presented, the principal position is associated with the teaching position. The main title associated with the teaching position, and, per consequence, the principal position, is the superior normalist degree, which resembles a bachelor degree in pedagogy or a K-12 teaching certificate. However, different degrees are required depending on the kind of school the candidate is applying to. For kindergarten and rural elementary school principals, applicants are required to have either the superior normalist title, a bachelor’s degree in education or equivalent, and four years of teaching experience. For coordinators, the requirements are similar, but five years of experience are required. For schools that have kindergarten and K-12, the requirements are similar, but now it is required for applicants to have six years of experience.

The process itself is composed of the following:

• Application and document presentation
• Verification of requirements
• Aptitude and general knowledge exam
• Psychological test and interviews

The candidates are then classified according to the results that they obtain in all the application process steps.

Since 2002, the selection process is now conducted by an independent, high level authority, which allows the process to be focused on the professional and technical aspects of the principal position rather than be influenced by political and personal interests. However, that could also mean that the specificities of the locality for which the candidate is being selected might not be considered.

Portugal

The process for which principal selection in Portugal occurs is defined by the law 22/2008 from April 22. This law states that principals are to be selected by a process that has two phases, the first being a public selection process, and the second, an election. The public selection phase includes:

• Analysis of the candidate's curriculum vitae (CV)
• Analysis of their intervention project for the school they are applying to
• Interview with the candidate

Candidates that are approved in these three phases are then subjected to an election. The candidates are elected by the general council, composed of all actors of the educational community such as teachers, school administrators, parents, students and others. This council is renovated every four years. Just like in other countries, in Portugal the principal position is considered a part of a teacher's career, yet teaching experience is not explicitly defined as a requirement for one to apply to become a principal. Instead, the requirements are that the candidate must either:

• Hold specific educational qualifications
• Have experience corresponding to at least a full term of office as director or deputy to the director, president or vice-president of the executive Council; executive director or deputy executive director; or member of the board of directors.
• Have experience of at least three years as a director or pedagogical director of the establishment of private and cooperative education.

The process in Portugal seems very complete, involving both the community and technical evaluations of the candidate to make sure that the best possible candidate is selected to the position of principal. However, one might argue that the prerequisites for the position, particularly the specific qualifications required, are too broad and not necessarily related to school administration, and thus could be narrowed to ensure that the candidates have qualifications connected to school leadership and administration and are effectively able to contribute to the school community.

United States

In the US, just like in Brazil, the process is decentralized and varies from state to state. In fact, the process is often defined by each district, and the states do not have too much of a say in it. However, when we take a look at the different processes, there seems to be more of a pattern among districts of different states, even when considering states with very different levels of educational attainment.  Using the Scholaroo public school ranking, I chose three very different states for this analysis: Connecticut, which is in the top 10 of the ranking (ranking the best when it comes to school quality), Utah, which is around the 38th position, and Louisiana, occupying the second worst position in the ranking.

Connecticut districts

In Connecticut, the process to become a school principal is multilayered and involves several aspects of the candidate's education and work experience. Firstly, candidates need to have a minimum of a master's degree from an accredited college or university.  Secondly, the aspiring principals must have a substantial amount of teaching experience; specifically, they are required to have at least 50 months of appropriate teaching experience. Beyond the master's degree, candidates must complete 18 additional graduate-level credits. Of these, 15 credits should be in educational administration, and three credits should be in special education. Finally, candidates must pass the Connecticut Administrator Test (CAT) and go through a criminal history and background check.

After fulfilling these requirements, candidates can apply for a principal certificate through the Connecticut Educator Certification System, which involves submitting various documents such as transcripts, professional experience documentation, and exam scores.

All these requirements seem to be important to guarantee that principal positions are filled with competent leaders capable of contributing to the school community.

Utah districts

Similarly to Connecticut, to become a principal in Utah, a candidate must fulfill requirements that include educational attainment, work experience and examinations.

Firstly, candidates must hold a Level 2 Teaching License and acquire a master’s degree in education. Additionally, completion of an education administrator preparation program is required. This program covers management concepts and skills necessary for effective communication, developing school-wide programs, and leadership in crises.

In addition, candidates need to pass one of two assessments. The Educational Leadership: Administration and Supervision exam focuses on curriculum design, instruction improvement, and group leadership skills. Alternatively, the School Leaders Licensure Assessment examines knowledge of organizational and educational systems, along with the ability to outline visions and goals for a school. Passing scores are required for certification.

At least three years of professional teaching experience is required. Additionally, candidates must complete administrative internships, accumulating a minimum of 450 hours of supervised administrative experience at both elementary and secondary school levels.

During the administrator preparation program, candidates complete application forms which are then forwarded to the Utah State Office of Education. Each program may have specific application rules and requirements.

Finally, candidates must undergo fingerprinting and a background check to confirm their eligibility to lead schools.

Louisiana districts

In Louisiana, the path to becoming a school principal generally involves obtaining an advanced degree, such as a Master of Education in Educational Leadership, and acquiring the necessary certification and licensure. For this process:

Candidates must have a valid Louisiana Type B or Level 2 teaching certificate or comparable certificate from another state; three years of teaching experience; a master’s degree in educational leadership or a letter from the dean outlining the alignment of the student’s master’s degree with an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership; and a passing score on the Praxis School Leaders Licensure Assessment (SLLA).

These steps ensure that candidates for principal positions in Louisiana are well-prepared and equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead effectively in educational settings.

For these three analyzed states, the process is relatively similar. It involves analysis of curriculum, looking at education, school experience, and requires the candidate to be approved in an assessment test in order to perform as a principal. Some school districts also require interviews to be made with candidates in order to determine who is suitable for the position. This process, although rigorous, could be criticized by the lack of involvement of the larger school community and the lack of components connected to the specific school community for which the principal is applying to. This impersonality could convey to the public that the principal is just someone sent by the ministry or the secretary of education to do what they want rather than someone that is there to support the school and grow alongside the community.