The Us School Superintendent

This report focuses on school superintendents--those currently in the position and those in the pipeline. The report reaffirms the importance of the superintendency, raises concerns about the lack of national data collection on school superintendents, and concludes that Americans need more demographic information about, and increased understanding of, the role of the superintendent. The report opens by criticizing the lack of information that has been generated on superintendents and proceeds to supply details on those who hold this position. It looks at the proportion of women in the job, as well as the race and the age of the job holders. The report discusses how long superintendents stay in the job, longer than the news media suggest, and how much they earn. The report explores the routes to the superintendency and looks at the pool of potential candidates for the position, which includes assistant superintendents, central-office administrators, and principals. The makeup of this pool reflects promising diversity in gender and race, although there is almost a total lack of Asian Americans in the pool. Another feature of this pool of potential superintendents is that secondary school principals are much more likely to become superintendents than are elementary school principals. (Contains 16 references.) (RJM)