Being a superintendent can be lonely.
There are few others who understand the complex challenges and responsibility that come with leading a school district, its staff, and its students. The job can be even more isolating for leaders from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the white male-dominated superintendency.
Just 3 percent of superintendents in 2022 identified as Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent data compiled by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, compared with almost 30 percent of students nationwide.
That reality makes it difficult for Latino district leaders themselves to be doing a job alongside few others with similar life experiences and backgrounds. The underrepresentation of Latinos in the top district spot also creates barriers for young people who may want to pursue the job someday because they come to think it’s not attainable for them, said three Latino superintendents during a recent webinar hosted by AASA and the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.
Martha Salazar-Zamora, the superintendent in Tomball, Texas; Gustavo Balderas, the AASA president and superintendent in Beaverton, Ore.; and Alex Marrero, the superintendent in Denver, shared their paths to district leadership. They also discussed the biggest challenges they face as Latino superintendents and what it will take to build a robust, diverse pipeline of future leaders from a variety of backgrounds.
It’s hard to be the first all the time
All three superintendents have been “the first” Latino or Latina to lead a district. Balderas has been the first five times, in each district he has led. Salazar-Zamora was the first woman and first superintendent of color to serve in district leadership in her Texas hometown. Marrero became the first Latino leader of the school system in New Rochelle, N.Y., before he was hired in Denver.
It’s an honor none of them takes lightly, but being the first—and among the few—has its challenges, the superintendents said.
It’s difficult to find a community of colleagues with similar backgrounds to turn to for advice or for examples.
“We talk about representation mattering. It does matter,” Salazar-Zamora said. “It matters in the classroom, that we have teachers that look like our students. It matters at every level of administration, and certainly in the superintendency.”
Oftentimes, leaders of color experience a double standard that can be draining and discouraging, Marrero said.
“We’re asked to lead the system that historically has not yielded results for our kids, for those who look like us,” he said. “These opportunity and achievement gaps have existed for decades and the expectation is that now, a leader of color is supposed to eradicate [them] overnight, when other folks are given grace, sometimes of a decade-plus—that’s the hardest part for me.”
The criticism can come from all angles, Marrero said, from people who say improvements are coming too slowly and from others who are frustrated by the various initiatives and efforts to make improvements.
It’s difficult to remember at times, but Marrero said he takes the critical feedback as “validation” of being “a change agent.”
Latino superintendents should prioritize developing a pipeline of future leaders
What good does it do to be a diverse leader if there aren’t others to follow in your footsteps?
That’s the question Balderas posed for webinar listeners as he urged Latino district leaders to prioritize diversifying their workforce, particularly among principals and top central office positions.
Balderas said he views a main function of his role as preparing others to take his position when he leaves.
“That intentionality has to be from the top down,” he said.
But the work should trickle down even further, he said. District leaders should be doing all they can to celebrate all students’ unique talents and backgrounds and set them up for success.
For example, Balderas’ Oregon district of 38,000 students has set a goal of having bilingual education and dual language immersion programs in each of its 50-plus schools, available to all students who want to participate.
“We have to make sure we are, as school leaders, taking on the kids’ assets and utilizing their assets in their education,” Balderas said. “It’ll look different in different communities because it is very context driven, but … just make sure you have an understanding of your kids and families.”
Another way to develop diverse pipelines of potential educators who might become future leaders is to invest in community engagement, said Salazar-Zamora.
Getting more parents and community members involved in the school system, whether through meetings, school activities, or other means, can ignite an interest in teaching or leadership that otherwise may not have sparked, she said.
Support other diverse leaders, too
While it’s important for white leaders to support leaders of color, leaders of color also need to make sure they’re supporting each other, even if they’re not the same ethnicity, Marrero said.
That support—which can come in the form of an encouraging text message or phone call or public celebration of successes—should come before a high-profile crisis and before a leader faces a conflict with their community or local school board.
“We need to do a better job lifting each other up,” he said.
Zamora added: “We have to see all children and understand they will be the people that will be leading the future.”
Balderas said being a superintendent “is the best job I’ve ever had,” and he hopes children of color will see him as an example later on, and that, ultimately, it will be more common for districts to be led by women and people of color.
“There needs to be more people that look like me in that seat in the future,” he said. “How do we raise those youngsters up into and through the ranks, and support them, so that it ensures we have capacity and the bench is wide and deep?”
