One in five of the nation’s 500 largest school districts replaced their superintendent during the 2023-24 academic year, new data show.
The finding comes as school districts face significant challenges with financial stability, enrollment declines, staffing, and academic recovery. Turnover at the helm of school systems can slow those efforts as new leaders often introduce new strategies and require time to acclimate to the role, education leadership experts say.
The new data also show gender and racial disparities in district leadership. It comes from an analysis of superintendents in large districts released Sep. 10 by the ILO Group, a consulting firm that advocates for and provides support for women in educational leadership. (Julia Rafal-Baer, the co-founder and CEO of the ILO group, serves on the board of trustees for Editorial Projects in Education, Education Week’s publisher. Education Week retains full editorial control of its content.)
Here are three key findings from the new data:
1. Superintendent turnover remains higher than it was before the pandemic
One hundred of the nation’s 500 largest districts experienced superintendent turnover between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024, the analysis found. Three of those districts had two or more leadership changes in that time span.
That 20 percent turnover rate is slightly below last year’s rate, 21.4 percent. It remains above the 14 to 16 percent turnover rate estimated by organizations like AASA, the School Superintendents Association, in years past, the ILO report said.
State legislatures and leadership organizations have sought to improve turnover rates and make it easier to fill open positions in recent years.
In April, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would have waived state licensure requirements for superintendents. Republican supporters of the bill said it would help districts more easily locate candidates for open leadership roles but Evers, a former educator, said the requirements are necessary to ensure superintendents have needed skills for the complex roles.
State superintendents in Washington and Alaska have created peer mentoring programs, providing professional development on issues like budgeting and pairing new superintendents with veterans to provide practical advice and help them navigate the rocky adjustment period.
“The superintendency is an incredibly isolated position, and the demands are monumental,” Sean Dusek, who leads the mentorship program for the Alaska Council of School Administrators, told Education Week in 2023. “With fewer and fewer people getting into the profession to begin with, we have to strengthen our current superintendents as much as we can and provide them with support so that they have job satisfaction and want to stay.”
2. While most teachers are women, most superintendents are men
Women led 152 of the 500 largest districts by the end of the 2023-24 school year, a number that did not change from the previous year, the data show. That’s particularly striking because 77 percent of teachers are women, according to the latest federal data.
“That zero growth-rate mirrors the steady state of women in top leadership positions in the private sector, including Fortune 500 CEOs,” the report said.
That means districts did not use turnover at the top as an opportunity to recruit new women leaders. Thirty-five of the districts with turnover selected female leaders, while 68 selected males, the data show.
Male superintendents were also less likely to hold a doctoral degree than their female counterparts, the data show.
Women who filled open leadership roles were more likely to be hired as internal candidates. And a majority of women superintendents in the analysis—138 of 152—were initially or currently employed as interim superintendents, suggesting districts’ recruitment and hiring practices could contribute to gender disparities.
In a March survey by Women Leading Ed, a network of superintendents that Rafal-Baer also leads, a majority of women in leadership roles reported that they believed that they had been passed over for leadership opportunities that were later given to male colleagues, and that their gender was a factor in salary negotiations.
3. White men are most likely to lead districts
The data also found racial disparities in district leadership, with women of color least likely to fill those roles.
Among the 500 largest districts:
- 220 are led by white men
- 128 are led by men of color
- 80 are led by white women
- 72 are led by women of color
The report recommends that school boards should be more transparent about the gender and race of candidates they consider for superintendent positions, set goals to promote diversity in leadership, and mentor current employees to take on leadership roles.
“Highlighting these issues is just the first step; we must take decisive action to dismantle these barriers,” Rafal-Baer said in a statement. “We need comprehensive policy changes to transform equality from a mere ideal into a tangible and integral part of our educational systems.”
