Does race matter: The relationship between race and principal selection and/or placement

Although legislation was enacted during the 1970's and 1980's to extend equal opportunities at jobs and promotions to minorities, there still remains an under-representation of African Americans and other minorities in principalships in this country. The under-representation of African Americans in the principalship in South Carolina is likely due to several forces such as institutional and attitudinal barriers, discrimination, racism and desegregation. The barriers against minorities in school administration can be more overwhelming than those faced by women. Significant shortages of African American teachers certainly impact the pool of African American school administrators. Historically, African American principals led majority African American student populated schools that were under performing. Nearly half of the school age children in South Carolina are African American (42.1%), yet only 26.5% of the principals are African American throughout the state.; The purposes of this study were to gather information about minority administrators' placement in South Carolina's public schools as principals and to determine the extent to which race plays a role in where principals are placed. Additionally, it was to determine the extent to which the phenomenon is influenced by school and district geographical location, school level, school and district rating/achievement, size, student population and school and district social economic status.; The study investigated data from reports generated at the South Carolina Department of Education and included all 1,047 public elementary, middle, and high schools in the state and included all 84 school districts. Data were disaggregated by the variables studied and analyzed using frequencies, percents, cross tabulations, and chi squares. Also, a multivariate, analysis using the logistic regression was used to analyze the level of significance of the variables.; The study revealed that three variables have more influence in regards to African American principals' assignments in the public schools in South Carolina: student population, school and district location and school and district report card rating.