Diversity and Licensure Outcomes in California’s Principal Pipeline: An Analysis of Administrator Candidate Performance

Disparities in demographic representation between students, teachers, and educational leaders have persisted for decades, as have outcomes on licensure exams across fields. With administrative data from the California Administrator Performance Assessment (CalAPA), we used descriptive analyses to elucidate a demographic profile of California’s educational leadership pipeline. We then used general linear models to explore patterns of association among racial/ethnic and gender groups on administrator candidate scores from the CalAPA. We found that diversity in California’s principal pipeline shows promise for future diversification in the principalship, yet disparities in licensure assessment outcomes raise some concerns about fairness.