The Principal Follow–up Survey (PFS)

The Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS), first conducted in school year 2008-09, is a component of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). NCES created the PFS in order to provide attrition rates for principals in K-12 public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools. The goal of the 2008-09 PFS was to assess how many principals in school year 2007-08 still worked as a principal in the same school in the 2008-09 school year, how many had moved to become a principal in another school, and how many had left the principalship altogether. Another goal was to measure, from those who left the principalship, what percentage retired or sought work in another occupational field. The PFS sample included all schools whose principals completed questionnaires in SASS. Schools that had returned a completed 2007-08 SASS principal questionnaire were mailed the PFS form in the spring of 2009. The PFS questionnaires are available online and can be downloaded from the Questionnaires page.