Succession planning for school principals: System control or leader agency?

The recruitment and appointment of principals are one of the most important activities of school and system leaders. The compelling evidence (e.g. Leithwood et al., 2006, 2020) that talented leadership has a signi fi cant impact on school improvement provides empirical support for the proposition that careful preparation and selection of principals are vital if schools and their students are to thrive. The criteria used to appoint principals vary across jurisdictions but typically include teaching experience, instructional leadership knowledge and skills and notions of contextual ‘ fi t ’ . However, such educational considerations may be trumped in some settings by political or administrative imperatives (Xue and Bush, 2021).