School Leadership and Administration in the United States

By /

The United States has no national school system in the sense that most countries do. Responsibility for public education lies with the 50 states and the District of Columbia, which delegate the day-to-day running of schools to local school districts governed by school boards. The federal government contributes a relatively small share of funding and attaches conditions to it, mainly through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently in the form of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. The result is highly decentralised: states license principals, districts hire and evaluate them, and schools are held to account through state test-based accountability systems rather than inspection. Generalisations about “the American principal” therefore hide considerable variation.

At a glance

FeatureUnited States
Level responsible for schoolsStates (50 plus DC), which delegate operation to local school districts
Number of districts13,303 regular school districts and about 19,200 local education agencies of all types in 2023–24 (NCES)
Local governanceSchool boards, usually with a superintendent as chief executive; arrangements vary by state
Who appoints principalsThe employing school district; procedures vary
Qualification for principalsState administrator licence; typically a master’s degree, teaching experience, an approved preparation programme and a licensure examination
Leadership standardsProfessional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL, 2015); National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) standards for preparation programmes (2018)
School evaluationState accountability systems under ESSA; no national inspectorate
Teacher appraisalState-regulated, district-run evaluation systems; requirements differ by state
Compulsory schoolingSet by each state; in NCES’s 2017 compilation, starting ages ranged from 5 to 8 and leaving ages from 16 to 19
International surveysPISA, TIMSS, PIRLS; TALIS 2018 and TALIS 2024

Governance and school autonomy

The federal Constitution does not mention education, and authority over schools rests with the states. State legislatures and boards of education set standards, testing, licensure and accountability rules; districts employ staff, set budgets and hire principals. In 2023–24, NCES counted 13,303 regular school districts; the total of operating local education agencies, about 19,200, also includes more than 4,000 independent charter school agencies, regional service agencies and other units.

Districts range from single rural schools to urban systems with hundreds of schools. Most are governed by an elected or appointed board, which usually appoints a superintendent. A school’s autonomy is therefore defined mainly by its district: some districts give principals control over staffing and much of the budget, others decide centrally. Charter schools, publicly funded but run under a contract, generally have more freedom over staffing and organisation.

Becoming a principal

Principals of public schools must hold a licence or certificate issued by the state. Requirements vary, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the typical route as a master’s degree in educational administration or leadership, several years of teaching experience, a state examination and a background check. Private school principals need no state licence. Most candidates qualify through a university-based or state-approved preparation programme combining coursework with an internship.

Many states use the School Leaders Licensure Assessment (SLLA, test 6990), a computer-delivered ETS test of 120 questions combining selected-response and constructed-response items. ETS states that it is aligned with the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders. Other states use their own examinations.

Two sets of national standards, both voluntary, shape the field. The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), published by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) in 2015, replaced the ISLLC standards of 1996 and 2008. They contain ten standards, against six in 2008, and give more emphasis to student learning and well-being. The National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) standards, approved in 2018, translate PSEL into expectations for graduates of preparation programmes, with separate building-level and district-level versions. They replaced the earlier ELCC standards in programme review.

Principals are hired by the employing district, not by the state, and there is no national pattern of contracts or tenure for the post. In TALIS 2018, 99% of US lower secondary principals held a master’s degree or higher, against a TALIS average of 61%.

The principal’s role

American principals manage the school, supervise staff, handle discipline and family relations, and answer for compliance with district and state rules. Policy and research have increasingly framed the role around instructional leadership, and PSEL reflects this. In TALIS 2018, US lower secondary principals reported spending 27% of their time on administrative tasks and meetings, 18% on leadership tasks, 17% on curriculum and teaching-related tasks and 18% on interactions with students. The last figure was higher than the TALIS average of 14%.

The most cited recent review is the Wallace Foundation’s 2021 synthesis by Grissom, Egalite and Lindsay, which drew on 219 studies published since 2000. The authors identified four sets of practices associated with effective principals: focusing work with teachers on instruction, building a productive school climate, fostering collaboration and professional learning, and managing personnel and resources strategically. Drawing on six value-added studies, they estimated that moving from a principal at the 25th percentile of effectiveness to one at the 75th was associated with about 2.9 additional months of learning in mathematics and 2.7 in reading in a school year. These estimates have since been questioned. Bartanen, Husain and Liebowitz (2024) argued that such models may credit principals with influences outside their control; under alternative assumptions, Wallace summarises their estimates as roughly three weeks of extra learning in mathematics and just over one week in reading. Wallace now flags the challenge on the report’s page, but it and the authors decided against a revised edition (Wallace Foundation, 2025).

Inspection and school evaluation

The United States has no inspectorate comparable to those in England or Turkey. External school evaluation takes the form of state accountability systems required by ESSA, signed in December 2015. States must test students annually in reading and mathematics in grades 3 to 8 and once in high school, and must rate schools on several indicators: achievement, growth or another academic measure, graduation rates, progress of English learners, and at least one measure of school quality or student success. At least once every three years, states must identify for comprehensive support and improvement the lowest-performing 5% of schools receiving Title I funds and high schools that graduate fewer than two-thirds of their students. Districts then draw up improvement plans with these schools. See also our page on school improvement.

Teacher appraisal and professional development

Teacher evaluation changed sharply after 2009. The federal Race to the Top competition and, later, waivers from No Child Left Behind encouraged states to adopt evaluation systems with several rating levels and to include measures of student learning. By 2015, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), 43 states required objective measures of student growth in teacher evaluations. ESSA removed federal pressure in this area, and by 2019 the number had fallen to 34. Over the same period, the number of states requiring annual evaluation of all principals fell from 34 to 30.

The ratings themselves changed less than expected. Kraft and Gilmour (2017), compiling ratings from 24 states that had reformed their systems, found that in the great majority of them fewer than 1% of teachers were rated unsatisfactory. In interviews in one large urban district, principals cited lack of time, limited capacity to support struggling teachers, and fear that a dismissed teacher might be replaced by a weaker one. Appraisal is thus closely tied to the supervision side of the principal’s role. Professional development is largely organised by districts, with federal support through Title II of ESSA.

Current reforms and debates

Principal turnover is a persistent concern. NCES’s Principal Follow-up Survey found that, between 2020–21 and 2021–22, about 80% of public school principals stayed in the same school, 6% moved to another school and 11% left the principalship. Leaving rates were highest among principals aged 55 or older (20%).

The federal role has also changed. In March 2025, Executive Order 14242 directed the Secretary of Education to take steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. The department cut its staff substantially, and in July 2025 the Supreme Court allowed the layoffs to proceed while litigation continued. On 18 November 2025 it announced six interagency agreements giving the Department of Labor a larger role in administering federal K-12 programmes, reportedly including Title I and Title II, Part A. In June 2026 it announced that some special education functions would move to Health and Human Services and civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice. The department has not been abolished, which would require an act of Congress, and a coalition of unions, school districts and advocacy groups has challenged the agreements in court. State and district responsibility for principals is not directly affected, but the administration of federal funds may be.

Comparison with Turkey

The two systems differ most in where authority lies. In Turkey, principals are appointed by the provincial governor after a national written examination and training at the National Education Academy, and serve fixed four-year terms (see principal appointment in Turkey). In the United States, the state licenses and the local district hires. Turkey also retains Ministry inspectors, whereas American schools are evaluated through state accountability data (see education inspectors in Turkey).

FeatureUnited StatesTurkey
Who appoints principalsLocal school districtProvincial governor (Minister for some schools)
Entry routeState licence, usually after a graduate preparation programmeWritten examination and training at the National Education Academy
TermNo national rule; depends on state law and district contractsFour school years, maximum eight in the same school
External school evaluationState accountability systems under ESSAMinistry Inspection Board and provincial education inspectors
Status of the principalA distinct licensed administrative positionA teacher assigned to an administrative post

Key takeaways

  • Authority over schools lies with the states and roughly 13,300 regular school districts, so principal requirements and evaluation vary widely.
  • Principals need a state licence, typically based on a master’s degree, teaching experience, an approved programme and an examination, and are hired by districts.
  • Schools are evaluated through ESSA accountability systems based largely on test results and graduation rates, not through inspection.
  • Research associates effective principals with better student outcomes, but the size of these effects is now debated, and federal administration of K-12 programmes has been in flux since 2025.

Sources

Last reviewed: October 2026

Scroll to Top