0.1 Kladifko, r., li, j., and dunlap, j. (october 2011). the school  (Page 4/5)

Two methodological strategies were used to answer the research questions. First, the frequencies and percentages responding to each of the possible reasons listed on the survey were used to determine the primary barriers that hinder eligible candidates from applying for a school leadership position. Second, logistic regression was used to estimate the likelihood of applying for a school administrative position based on individual background characteristics. Logistic regression is appropriate for the analysis since the dependent variable is a dichotomous variable, i.e., whether or not the graduating students would apply for an administrative position. The independent variable included gender, age, race/ethnicity, sub-administrator status, and years of teaching experience.

Results

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the participants. As it shows, more than 57% of the participants did not plan to become school administrators. The top five rated barriers to pursuing a school leadership position were: s at isfied with current role, don’t feel prepared, family considerations and responsibilities, long hours required of administrators, and lack of support for new administrators.

Table 2 presents the results of the logistic regression, including the odds ratio for each variable. When all five predictor variables were considered together, they significantly predicted whether or not a student would apply for an administrative position after graduation from the Administrative Services Credential Program, χ ² = 22.04, df = 5, p <.001. The odds ratio for age indicated that the odds of applying for an administrative position were increasingly greater as age increased. Since the odds ratio for gender was less than 1, female students were less likely than male students to apply for an administrative position. Conversely, the odds of male students applying for the job were 2.44 (1/.41) times higher than the odds of female students. The remaining variables (i.e., years of teaching experience, minority and sub-administrator status) were not significant predictors.

Discussion

There is a continued demand for qualified individuals to fill new and vacant school administrative positions in California, but few eligible candidates are willing to take the job. Our study provides further insight into the barriers that hinder eligible candidates from pursuing school administrative positions and how individual background characteristics influence the candidates’ decisions. The top two barriers identified by this study are consistent with the findings of a prior research (Winter et al., 2002): satisfaction with the current job, and lack of self-reported capability to do the job. Contrary to the prior research, this study showed that gender was a significant predictor and age had a positive impact. One possible explanation is that a large percentage of female (46%) participants in this study indicated the item “ family considerations and responsibilities” as a barrier compared to male participants (12%). Also, the median age of the participants in the study by Winter et al. (2002) was 51, while the participants in our study were younger and 87.4% of them were 51 years old or under.