Management in Education Copyright © 2008 British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS), Vol 22 (1): 14–17. DOI: 10.1177/0892020607085625

The need for educational administrators 1 at all levels has been the subject of much attention for many years now. The shortage seems evident. The numbers of quali-fied applicants for principal and superintendent vacancies seems at an all time low according to local personnel departments and human resource officers.2 Where there previously had been 20 or more applicants for a superintendency they are now seeing a half-dozen and of those six only a few carry the experience and qualifications neces-sary to truly run a school district. Search after search in our own local area has been reopened after the pool of candidates is simply too small. School districts find them-selves putting advertisements for openings in publications beyond their area to encourage quality professionals to apply and come to the area. This was something that was simply not done nor needed 15 to 20 years ago