Study: Women APs Average 13.2 Years Teaching
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- Lauren P. Bailes and co-authors Sarah Guthery and Elc Estrera analyzed eight years of administrative data from a southeastern U.S. urban district and found that female APs average 13.2 years of teaching experience before applying for the principalship, compared with 10.6 years for men—meaning women are more qualified on paper but still apply less often.
- Male APs began applying with as few as 5 years of experience, while women in the study continued applying for roughly a decade longer than their male peers; fewer than 37% of all APs in the pool ever submitted a principal application.
- APs of color were 66% less likely than white APs to apply for a principalship regardless of gender, and the first female AP of color didn't apply until she had 10 years of district experience—double the 5-year threshold of the first white male applicant.
- Bailes advised women and APs of color not to wait for an organizational "tap" before applying, warning candidly that "the tap may never come" and that if women notice men with less experience "moving faster," "you're probably right."
- The University of Delaware's School Success Center has graduated 145 educators through its Principal Preparation Program over the last decade—nearly 80% women and more than 30 people of color—with about two-thirds of alumni now in leadership roles across Delaware.
- The Delaware Chamber of Commerce recognized the Principal Preparation Program as a 2026 Superstar in Education, while the SSC's annual Women Leading Delaware Education Conference now draws more than 350 educators each March.
Why it matters: Female APs are MORE qualified than their male peers (13.2 vs 10.6 years teaching) yet apply for the principalship at far lower rates, per a University of Delaware study. For school districts, the implication is concrete: experienced internal candidates—disproportionately women and people of color—are self-selecting out not for lack of credentials but for lack of a proactive nudge, and districts are losing out on the most ready talent in their own pipeline.
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