NEW ORLEANS — It's never an easy time to be a school superintendent, and now is certainly no exception. From pushes to improve accountability and innovation to surging misinformation and politicization, district leaders have their hands full.
“I'm very proud of how our leaders are facing the work every day. It's not easy,” says David Schuler, executive director of AASA, The Superintendents Association. “There's a lot going on right now. But you know what? The kids are gonna show up on Monday, and our leaders are going to do right by those kids.”
Schuler succeeded longtime executive director Dan Domenech in 2023. A past president of AASA, in 2015-16, Schuler served 22 years as a school superintendent — including 18 years leading Township High School District 214 in Arlington Heights, Ill.
K-12 Dive caught up with Schuler on Saturday during AASA's annual conference to learn more about what he sees as the greatest barrier to school innovation, how superintendents can address misinformation, and how school systems can continue to diversify leadership pipelines in the face of threats related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
K-12 DIVE: The theme for the conference is “Future-Driven Leadership.” What do you see currently as the biggest barriers to innovation facing superintendents?
DAVID SCHULER: Well, I think the current accountability system is challenging, because everything is geared toward a test rather than toward the future — and that's one of the reasons why we chose the theme we did this year.
We want people thinking ahead, because we have to prepare our kids for a world we can't imagine, and one that's going to change over the time of their lives. And really, a test score — that's going to help them? And yet that's how all schools are held accountable.
We really want to get the mindset shifted with both our leaders and policymakers to think about, “It doesn't matter what a kid does when they’re 4, 8, 12, 16 [years old]. What matters is how successful they are after they graduate.” That's what we have to focus on: preparing our kids for their future.
There's been a lot of talk about test scores because of the NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] results and everything around that. Are there things you see within the current testing environment that are barriers to improving that performance? And how can AASA advocate on behalf of superintendents to improve those factors that aren't working?
SCHULER: Well, a couple things. One, I think the longitudinal data is challenging, because the world is changing so fast.
I completely agree that we need some basic assessments. We know 3rd grade and 8th grade on-track measures are really important. But how about writing the questions in a way that really demonstrates what our kids currently live?
I know that's not easy from a longitudinal perspective, but does that matter? Shouldn't what matters be where our current kids are in the context in which they live? There's a question on NAEP about pay phones. What kid today knows what a pay phone is? You know what I mean?
Our assessments have to be reflective of the current context for our kids. And then, I think we take this, we really focus on what those priorities are, what those standards are that we know help our kids that next year, and we can teach to mastery.
School districts are facing an uptick in false information and misinformation. As much as innovation is improving the learning process, tools like AI are also making that misinformation feel a lot more complex and hard to navigate. How can AASA help them?
SCHULER: As part of our Public Education Promise, one of our principles is the new basics — real skills for real life — and that's exactly what that's about. Being able to understand what is fact and what is opinion? Or not fact — it may just not be true, you know? That digital literacy becomes super important and has to be part of those new basic skills.
It's becoming a bigger challenge for the superintendency as well, with people within communities spreading misinformation about what's going on in schools. What are some ways that superintendents can address that, and what kind of resources might AASA have available?
SCHULER: One of the things we're working on is that we have to help our colleagues tell their story differently. And we have to tell the story through the lens of our students.
A data point is fine, but that doesn't resonate. No one internalizes a data point. What they internalize is a great story about the kids. And that's what we need to do a better job of.
We're putting together a tool kit on how to change the narrative in your community by telling the story through the lens of kids, because our kids are doing great things. Our teachers are doing great things. But when you put a number [of a standardized test score] up on a screen, it doesn't impact anybody.
Everybody has a son, a daughter, a grandchild, a cousin, a nephew, a brother, a sister who's been through school and has had great experiences. Not all experiences are great, but they've had some great experiences during their lives. No one can say they hated school from kindergarten through 12th grade. At one point, they loved something about it.
They can internalize if you tell a story that hits them where they were at, and that's what we have to do a better job of.
Because the school model has evolved so much for some parents and community members, it can be kind of scary because it doesn't look like it did when they were in school.
SCHULER: Right. And it's not the parents that have kids in school, it's the individuals who don't have kids in school that we really need to connect with in a different way, because a lot of them are hearing things, but they don't have an opportunity to see them.
That's not unfair to them — you are your lived experience, right? What they're hearing is what they're believing, but we have to counter that with what's really happening in our schools, which are some really great things.
The policy landscape overall has become a lot more complex, to say the least. But when it comes to efforts to diversify the pipeline to the superintendency alongside current threats around DEI, how can superintendents, school boards, etc. continue that work?
SCHULER: I think you have to grow your own. We have to tap individuals in our current systems and encourage them to take that next step. And then, we have to provide the supports and resources to help them be successful — to get the job, and then to retain the job.
We have a number of aspiring superintendent programs which we're very proud of, and we have a partnership with NAESP [National Association of Elementary School Principals] and NASSP [National Association of Secondary School Principals], along with ASCD [formerly known as Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development] and ISTE [International Society for Technology in Education], on building a continuum from teacher to principal to central office to superintendent.
We have to work together. We're not going to get greater diversity in superintendents if we don't have greater diversity in the central office and in principals.
