69传媒

School & District Management

Superintendent Turnover Is a Real Thing. How Bad Is It?

By Stephen Sawchuk 鈥 February 28, 2022 6 min read
Superintendents Data 022522 928080898
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

News reports point to high local instances of turnover at the top job鈥 nearly , a 鈥済reat exodus鈥 per the Texas Tribune .

All those anecdotes beg the question: Just how high is it nationally?

Such a seemingly simple question contains a deceptively complex answer, mainly because there鈥檚 a notorious lack of good superintendent data. But recently, analysts have creatively tried to square that circle鈥攕ome of them literally going district website by district website and cross-checking news reports to arrive at their estimates.

In all, what they show suggests that turnover at the top of school districts has indeed increased, at least in urban settings, and probably in others.

The phenomenon has been a bit overshadowed amid the struggles of teachers, paraprofessionals, and bus drivers, but deserves more attention because of how it stands to affect day-to-day district operations鈥攊ncluding the tough choices about how to spend time-limited pandemic funding, observers say.

鈥淚 feel like it鈥檚 important to balance this story about the teacher challenges with the leadership challenges and the kind of turnover we鈥檙e going to see in the principal ranks,鈥 said Karen Hawley Miles, the president and CEO of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit consulting firm that works with district leaders. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing these superintendents can do right right now. Everything they鈥檝e done about masking and opening or closing someone is picketing or protesting. It鈥檚 this incredible, daily, nightly, sleepless stress.鈥

Here are three things to know about superintendent turnover.

Turnover in large, urban districts is high. It鈥檚 less clear in other districts

There is no national, year-over-year data collection that tracks a sample of superintendents, so even arriving at a benchmark figure for turnover is difficult. (One often-cited 2006 estimate from AASA, the School Superintendents鈥 Association but it鈥檚 not clear how that data was derived.) And all of the estimates vary somewhat because of differences in method.

ERS is among the first to try to get its own baseline of turnover, both pre-pandemic and during COVID. Its analysts used federal data to identify the 100 largest districts by student enrollment, and then backtracked over the last seven years to look at which ones turned over in each school year.

It found that, in each of school years 2020-21 and 2021-22, about a quarter of superintendents had turnover鈥攖he highest rate since 2018.

This finding is generally supported by recent data from the research and policy analysis firm RAND, which drew on a sample of some 3,500 district leaders who work in a nationally representative sample of districts.

See Also

Image of folders on a desktop with photos stacked on top representing leaving a job, hiring, and waiting for an interview.
AndreyPopov, fizkes, artisteer, and iStock/Getty

In a clever way of estimating turnover at the top, the researchers compared the superintendent rosters in this sample from fall 2020-21 to fall 2021-22; if the roster name changed, then the organization considered it a turnover. (It鈥檚 not clear whether they retired, left the field permanently, or are looking for other positions.)

RAND found that turnover was higher in urban districts, at 18 percent, than in suburban and rural districts, where it was closer to the (somewhat iffy) benchmark. Notably, however, turnover was higher in those districts serving more students of color.

(RAND鈥檚 analysis does not include charter management organizations or districts that belong to the Council of the Great City 69传媒, a membership body of 76 primarily urban districts.)

Things look particularly concerning for women superintendents

Between the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 and January 2022, close to 4 in 10 larger districts have begun or completed a leadership change, concludes the ILO Group, a women-founded national education strategy and policy firm, in a new analysis.

Its analysts found that between March 2020 and early this calendar year, 186 of the largest 500 districts by student enrollment had either sought or hired new leaders. That鈥檚 a rate of about 37 percent. (Click here to)

See Also

Santa Rosa City 69传媒 Superintendent Dr. Diann Kitamura poses for a portrait inside the district鈥檚 headquarters in Santa Rosa, California, on May 6, 2021. Dr. Kitamura is stepping down from her role at the end of June.
Diann Kitamura is the superintendent in the Santa Rosa, Calif., school district, which was battered by massive wildfires and then the pandemic. Kitamura will step down at the end of June.
Ramin Rahimian for Education Week

Unique among the new analyses, ILO also found that as districts have churned through leaders, their replacements have largely been men, exacerbating an already severe gender imbalance in the composition of the workforce. Seven in 10 of those districts hired men, and of the 51 women superintendents who departed in the sample, three-quarters were replaced by male hires, said Julia Rafal-Baer, one of the organization鈥檚 co-founders.

鈥淚t is shocking, and should be sounding the alarm for everyone who believes in basic equity,鈥 she said.

Like ERS, the researchers used the NCES data to identify the top districts based on student enrollment. The largest 500 districts include many more suburban and countywide districts鈥攖he types of districts that have been in the crosshairs of some of the most virulent political debates over masking, curriculum, and vaccination policy.

In contrast to the RAND data, ILO found turnover generally high over all of those districts across the two-year period. (Perhaps district size is a factor, with more populous districts tending to be buffeted by political forces than smaller, more remote or more homogenous districts.)

Many superintendents that haven鈥檛 left yet are actively considering it

Both the RAND survey and a secondary analysis suggest that many district leaders have at least thought about leaving, even if they haven鈥檛 pulled the ripcord yet.

Half of the superintendents in the RAND survey, when asked about future career plans, said they鈥檇 planned to stay, but the other half was split neatly into a quarter that was undecided and a quarter that intended to leave.

A much smaller survey of about 140 superintendents, conducted by the firm EAB, a research, advising, and technology company, also found that about half of superintendents planned to stay. But the other half was split into a quarter that planned to retire and a quarter that was either actively looking to leave or 鈥渨aiting to see how things go.鈥 (The superintendents in this survey were part of a convenience sample鈥攐ne that doesn鈥檛 attempt to be nationally representative.)

And finally, the National Superintendents Roundtable, a professional network organized by the Schlechty Center in Louisville, Ky., found in its survey of nearly 400 superintendents that in the 2020-21 school year, though only 17 percent actually did.

As always, these types of queries tend to get at intent rather than individuals鈥 specific courses of action. Like recent surveys that show , the findings could be a symptom of frustration and exhaustion at dealing with the momentous health, political, and social changes of the last two years.

Still, observers say, the fact that a quarter of respondents in both surveys are thinking about leaving should be a sign that the superintendent corps needs more support.

鈥淭here is still a window of opportunity. What can we do to make sure district leaders with experience can feel more successful in the role? How do we keep in them in seats to support students and avoid massive turnover?鈥 said Ben Court, the director of strategic research for EAB鈥檚 District Leadership Forum.

One idea: creating stronger cross-state networks for leaders to share their successes and challenges.

鈥淎lmost every superintendent we talked to wants that collective wisdom, and the benefit of making joining decisions with other districts,鈥 Court said.

Coverage of leadership, summer learning, social and emotional learning, arts learning, and afterschool is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the March 16, 2022 edition of Education Week as Superintendent Turnover Is a Real Thing. How Bad Is It?

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69传媒
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

School & District Management Reports Strategic Resourcing for K-12 Education: A Work in Progress
This report highlights key findings from surveys of K-12 administrators and product/service providers to shed light on the alignment of purchasing with instructional goals.
School & District Management Download Shhhh!!! It's Underground Spirit Week, Don't Tell the 69传媒
Try this fun twist on the Spirit Week tradition.
Illustration of shushing emoji.
iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion How My Experience With Linda McMahon Can Help You Navigate the Trump Ed. Agenda
I have a lesson for district leaders from my (limited) interactions with Trump鈥檚 pick for ed. secretary, writes a former superintendent.
Joshua P. Starr
4 min read
Vector illustration of people walking on upward arrows, symbolizing growth, progress, and teamwork towards success.
iStock/Getty Images
School & District Management Opinion How Social-Emotional Learning Can Unify Your School Community: 7 Timely Tips
It鈥檚 a stressful political season. These SEL best practices can help school leaders weather the unpredictable transitions.
Maurice J. Elias
4 min read
Modern digital collage of caring leader surrounded by positivity. Social Emotional learning leadership.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva