An assistant principal is a person who assists a principal with his or her work. An assistant principal is definitely burdened with some of the most important responsibilities of an academic institution.
Assistant principals can assist in addressing principal turnover and teacher shortages. Current trends in education indicate that principal attrition and teacher scarcity will continue. Assistant principals are well placed to provide a pool of knowledgeable school leaders ready to fill principal vacancies. Assistant principals can also help schools retain effective principals by collaborating on leadership roles to make the principal role more manageable, reducing principal burnout and turnover. Furthermore, research indicates that school leaders play an important role in creating favourable and positive working conditions for teachers, implying that assistant principals may be well-positioned to nurture school cultures that attract and keep teachers.
The assistant principal position is becoming more common as a necessary step to the principalship.
For many educators, the path to the principalship begins as a teacher leader, then moves into the assistant principalship, and finally to the principalship. Because the majority of principals are promoted from the ranks of assistant principals, it is critical to think about how to explicitly design the assistant principal role as the first step to effective principal leadership.
