Katherine McElroy

Examining job transitions into management positions is empirically challenging because there is selection into the job, both by the employee and the employer. I take advantage of a performance-based pay scheme for teachers, assistant principals, and principals to study the relationship between salary and teacher transitions to the assistant principalship. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find teachers are more likely to become assistant principals or exit the district public school system when they receive an evaluation score placing them just below the cutoff of a higher evaluation bin. Just missing the threshold for a higher evaluation bin may affect teacher career decisions through channels such as motivation, demand-driven factors, and salary. I employ a difference-in-discontinuity methodology to isolate the effect of salary on job transitions and conclude the main result is driven by salary. Understanding factors that influence teachers' decisions to stay in teaching or switch to administration has important policy implications as schools balance between attracting effective leaders and retaining high quality teachers.