Internal Pressures, External Opportunities: Investigating Why Superintendents Turn Over

• In Event: Issues for Local Education Governance

Abstract

The conventional wisdom surrounding superintendent turnover is that superintendents’ exits from school districts are typically driven by internal pressures such as school board conflict or public dissatisfaction. Surprisingly, however, almost no research has examined the antecedents of superintendent turnover on a systematic basis. This study draws on administrative data and unique survey data from a representative sample of superintendents and school board members in California from 2005-06 to identify the factors that predict superintendent turnover in a district in the subsequent three years. We find that internal factors, such as school board conflict and poor board-superintendent relations, indeed predict superintendent turnover, but also that superintendents moving to new positions tend to go to larger, higher-paying districts.

Authors

• Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University

• Stephanie V. Andersen, University of Missouri