2026 Tennessee Educator Survey Snapshot: School Leadership

The 2026 Tennessee Educator Survey Snapshots offer quick, accessible insights from educators on some of the most important issues in our schools—including artificial intelligence, cell phone policies, student discipline, match curriculum and supports, career and technical education, early-career teachers, teacher evaluation and retention, and more. These one-pagers highlight what teachers are seeing and experiencing right now, providing valuable perspective to inform conversations about policy and practice across the state.

• Key Insight #1: Principals report spending the most time on supporting teacher instruction, general school management, and tasks related to teacher evaluation, while assistant principals (APs) report spending more of their time on student discipline and other meetings or supervision.
• Key Insight #2: Elementary and middle school principals report spending the most time supporting teacher instruction, while high school principals spend the most time on general school management/operations. Across school tiers, APs spend the largest portion of their time on student discipline.