Effective school-site administrators play a key role in student achievement. Over the next decade, as baby boomer principals and assistant principals retire and student enrollment increases, California will be challenged to recruit a sufficient number of well-qualified administrators to lead its schools.

While there is no shortage nationally of candidates earning administrative credentials, it can be difficult to attract highly qualified administrators to the schools that most need them—for example, those with high concentrations of students living in poverty or English language learner students, or those located in rural areas.

Among the 11 California regions defined for the studies, increased demand for principals and assistant principals over the next eight years varies between 17.4 percent and 42.3 percent, compared to 2007/2008 workforce levels.