With 50 percent of all principals planning to retire in the 1980's, hiring good principals should be a matter of planning rather than chance. This pamphlet notes the strategies that can help to ensure that a district hires effective educational leaders as principals. Developing effective job descriptions and interviewing techniques, though essential, can be supplemented with assessment center observations, in which administrator candidates are observed in model job situations for several days and rated according to the important skills needed by successful principals. Academic leadership training institutes, such as those at Harvard, the University of Oregon, and Butler University, also provide workshops to improve administrators' instructional leadership skills. Finally, superintendents and school boards can identify and prepare future principals in five steps designed to support a district's commitment to administrative excellence. (JW)