Purpose. This dissertation addresses the problem of principal turnover. Using state and city level administrative data, a study of principals and their schools in greater Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was conducted with the goal of discovering themes that emerge regarding the factors associated with turnover of school level leaders. There are two focus areas for the dissertation. First, the dissertation attempts to discover the impact of individual principal characteristics on the relative mobility of building level leaders. Second, the dissertation examines the role of school-level variables on the relative mobility of building level leaders.

Methods. This study constructs data sets of school principals from the states of Missouri and Wisconsin, as well as from the metropolitan areas of Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A “stability” ratio is constructed which identifies the amount of time a principal spent in any given school as a percent of the total time that principal was in the data set. Utilizing the state and city level data sets, the analysis estimates truncated regression models to identify the effects of principal level variables, school level variables, and the dependent measure of interest, the “stability” ratio.

Findings. The principal’s relative salary exerts a consistent effect on stability. The greater the principal’s salary, the more likely it is that the principal is stable. The principal’s educational background appears to have an impact on the principal’s stability. Principals with Master’s degrees from Research I institutions were more stable than their peers with degrees from other institution classifications. The study also finds that the principal’s gender has an effect on stability, as male principals are more likely to be unstable than female principals. The demographics of a given school, specifically the percentage of African-American students, also affect principal stability. As the percentage of African-American students grows, the likelihood of principal instability and turnover grows. Finally, the middle school principal appears to be less stable than the elementary or high school principal.