Dive Brief:

• A quarter of the superintendents in California’s largest 20 districts were once students in those schools, which gives them a deeper understanding of the communities and an emotional incentive to stay in their positions for many years.
• EdSource reports Michelle King, superintendent of Los Angeles Unified, spent her entire K-12 years in the district, going on to be a teacher and principal before becoming superintendent and bringing all of that experience at every level of the system to her role.
• Other superintendents report wanting to make former teachers in their districts proud or give back to their communities, and many say they intend to stay in their jobs for years longer than the current average, which breeds important stability in their systems.

Dive Insight:

EdSource surveyed California’s 30 largest school districts and found 17 of them are led by superintendents who have been in their position for less than three years. Only two superintendents among these districts have been in their positions for 10 years or more. Stability, however, can be an important key to long-term success. New leadership can cancel prior initiatives before they have time to realize their full potential, and high turnover can cause initiative fatigue among staff.

In Gwinnet County Public Schools in the metro Atlanta area, ed tech success is attributed, in part, to stable support from a superintendent who has been in place since 1996 and a school board where the majority of members have been in their seats for at least as long. Technology efforts have been consistently funded for more than a decade, putting the district ahead of its peers when it comes to implementation and measurable progress.