- Research Brief
Aspiring Principals’ Leadership Experiences in Tennessee: Evidence from the Vanderbilt Aspiring Leaders Study
- By Jacob M. Rubin, Jason A. Grissom, Kaitlin Binsted
Key Findings
- Most aspiring principals report a good or great deal of experience with instructionally focused tasks, such as using data to make decisions about instruction and providing feedback on instruction to teachers. However, less than one-half report similar experience with organizational tasks such as maintaining facilities and school budgeting.
- Aspiring principals with more assistant principal experience report more experience with most leadership tasks.
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Aspiring principals in urban districts report greater experience across leadership tasks than their suburban and town/rural counterparts. Reported experience does not systematically differ by school grade band.
Suggested Citation
Grissom, J. A., Rubin, J. M., Binsted, K. (2026). Aspiring Principals’ Leadership Experiences in Tennessee: Evidence from the Vanderbilt Aspiring Leaders Study. Tennessee Education Research Alliance.