- Research Brief
Aspiring Principals’ Hiring Practices in Tennessee: Evidence from the Vanderbilt Aspiring Leaders Study
- By Francisco A. Santelli, Jacob M. Rubin, Jason A. Grissom, Kaitlin Binsted, Nina Brown
Key Findings
- Aspiring principals with more hiring experience were more likely to discuss screening and selecting candidates, while those with less experience were more likely to discuss recruiting candidates.
- Only about one in ten aspiring principals identified starting the recruiting process early as a strategy to attract strong candidate applications and avoid last-minute hiring.
- Among the approximately one-half of aspiring principals who discussed engaging with multiple sources of evidence to evaluate candidates, the types of evidence they discussed often reflected their broader candidate preferences.
- Roughly a third of aspiring principals discussed engaging in collaborative decision-making strategies during the hiring process.
Suggested Citation
Rubin, J. M., Grissom, J. A., Binsted, K., Santelli, F.A., Brown, N. (2026). Aspiring Principals’ Hiring Practices in Tennessee: Evidence from the Vanderbilt Aspiring Leaders Study. Tennessee Education Research Alliance.