Factors Influencing Superintendent Longevity

Abstract

From its inception, this mixed methods dissertation was derived from an aspiring superintendent wishing to learn more about the factors influencing superintendent longevity. The study offers the aspiring superintendent insight into the job, while school boards may also find this work informative. The study focused on Hoyle’s (1993) AASA superintendent standards, delving deeply into the first four of the eight standards. Using the standards, the researcher developed a survey and shared it with all 115 school superintendents of a southeastern U.S. state, where 64% of the superintendents responded to the survey. Overwhelmingly, the respondents expressed that communication skills were essential for success. The study’s conceptual framework establishes that the superintendent’s responsibilities and skills have increased substantially since the turn of the 21st century. Further, recognizing the AASA standards could use an update to better mirror the direction in which the job has evolved over the last three decades. The researcher also established a 5-year benchmark for what the respondent superintendents believed was the amount of time needed to achieve longevity in the job. Seventy percent of the superintendents in the state have yet to reach the 5-year mark (Hart et al., 2022). With such a large number of superintendents in the state short of the longevity mark, the number of districts for training aspiring superintendents has the potential for less development before gaining superintendent status, offering a great deal of untapped research for future proposals.