2019-20 Chicago Principals Overview

The 2019-20 Chicago Principals Overview is The Fund’s fourth annual report on the state of the city’s principals. Each year, we use publicly available data to paint a picture of principals’ backgrounds and experience. This helps us, and the education community, track trends and changes in principal experience, diversity and retention over the years.

In this report, we look at both charter- and district-operated schools to measure the considerable impact of public school principals in Chicago: On average, each of these 650 principals oversees 63 staff members, 546 students and a $6.0 million budget.

It takes a great leader to make a great school. By analyzing who our principals are, where they work and how they transition between jobs, The Fund hopes to better understand how Chicago can prepare its principals for a challenging, yet immensely rewarding, career.