The position of superintendent has long been characterized by high rates of turnover. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that influence the anticipated length of service of the current superintendents in a Midwestern state. It examined superintendent responses to determine trends affecting length of tenure. The findings of this…

As school districts consider transitioning from a traditional five-day school week to a four-day school week, administrators and school boards seek information about the four-day school week to assist in making the best decision possible. This collective case study was undertaken to examine the perceptions of administrators, school counselors, and…

Policymakers and others seeking to guide and support California's school districts in the era of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) may benefit from better understanding how recent policy shifts shape the work of district leadership. This paper summarizes interview findings that convey the practical, on-the-ground perspectives of an…

This study explored the relationship between a superintendent's leadership style and their strategic planning and change management process using a qualitative methodology with a case study design. Purposeful sampling methods were used to identify 13 superintendents from the Southwest and Midwest regions of the United States. The participants were…

In school districts across the United States, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit and retain STEM teachers. This is due, in part, to the limited number of candidates in teacher preparation school compared to other disciplines, as well as greater opportunities for STEM teachers in other employment sectors when compared to teachers in…

Roaring Falls Unified School District (a pseudonym), an urban New Jersey district near NYC, was challenged by K-8 Multilingual Language Learners (MLLs) who lagged significantly behind general education students in English Language Arts (ELA). The District had roughly 12,000 students, of whom 93.0% were Hispanic, 26.2% were MLLs, and 32.0% were…

In this report, we complement our latest fall 2021 survey research from the American School District Panel with in-depth interviews of leaders on the ground in five school systems. Our goal with these interviews was to learn from system leaders about the academic needs of children as they return to school, how districts and charter schools are…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how school superintendents were using general fund referenda to meet their school district's operational budgets. However, after interviews began it became clear that the superintendents wanted to tell a different story and that was how the current school funding mechanism and property tax caps…

Superintendents are the leaders of school districts across the nation, but very few states offer any type of formal leadership development once a person attains the superintendent position. During the 2014-2015 school year, 28 superintendents across the state of Ohio were chosen to participate in the Ohio School Leadership Institute (OSLI), which…

Nationally, over the past few decades, standards-based school reform has taken root as a policy initiative and instructional model. This has advanced the use of learning standards and aligned assessments as a mechanism to bring consistency and clarity to public school curriculum and instruction, with the intention of raising student achievement.…

Spending more time teaching science and social studies in K-3 can have at least four potential benefits: (1) Increased learning in these subjects is likely to improve students' reading comprehension in later grades; (2) Introducing students to science and social studies in the early grades is likely to better prepare them for learning those…

This work explores how mindful leadership practice can inform school and district leadership specifically as it occurs in professional learning communities (PLC). When school and district leaders create PLC cultures that encourage rich thinking and intentional practice, individual and organizational mindfulness is present. As leaders work to craft…

In November 2015, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration--a coalition of nine professional associations--adopted the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), a set of guidelines for the training, certification, hiring, evaluation, and supervision of school principals and superintendents. While it draws heavily from…

This was a study conducted with four first-year educational leaders who were interviewed to determine whether they experienced feelings of isolation and disengagement from individuals who had been peers in the work-place. Each respondent was promoted from within their educational organization to a leadership position and was interviewed to…

Superintendents confront a number of external and internal demands as leaders of complex educational organizations. Compounding the external demands superintendents confront is the recent, heightened advancement of national educational reform policy occurring through the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations. The federal education reform…