Guest Blog: Superintendent (In)Stability and Student Achievement in the United States

New research from The Superintendent Lab challenges the long-held assumption that superintendents have little or no effect on student learning. Rather than treating turnover as a one-time shock to a system and exploring what happens to student achievement after that shock, this study examines the relationship between superintendent stability cumulatively across seven years and student achievement.

In Superintendent (In)Stability and Student Achievement in the United States, Dr. White finds that districts with repeated superintendent changes trail stable districts in student achievement, that the accumulation of contentious superintendent departures carries roughly twice the achievement penalty of the accumulation of amicable departures, and that high-poverty districts bear the largest costs of superintendent departures. These findings give superintendents evidence to bring to boards in building shared norms and honest dialogue, to communities in explaining why leadership continuity matters, and to state policymakers in advocating for contract and succession practices that protect it.