Women Are a Majority of School Principals But Trail Men by a Large Margin at the High School Level

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education looks at the demographic characteristics of elementary and secondary school principals in the United States.

Overall, during the 2017-18 school year, 54 percent of public school principals were women. In public elementary schools, women made up two thirds of all school principals. But women were only 40 percent of principals at public middle schools and 33 percent of principals at public high schools.

Overall, 58 percent of private school principals were women. As was the case for public schools, women were nearly two thirds od all principals at private elementary schools but were only 44 percent of the principals at private secondary schools.

The full 63-page report, Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary and Secondary School Principals in the United States: Results From the 2017–18 National Teacher and Principal Survey, can be downloaded by clicking here.