Inside AASA: Leslie Finnan

Inside AASA

AASA’s policy and advocacy team represents the concerns of nearly 14,000 school system leaders to the three branches of the federal government. To ensure the staff advocates in the right direction, the team conducts substantial education policy research and periodic surveys of association members.

Leslie Finnan, AASA’s senior legislative analyst, is responsible for the creation, distribution and analysis of those surveys and other research initiatives. The annual superintendent salary and benefits study, the fifth of which will be released in 2017, is the department’s most sizeable research undertaking.

Finnan came to AASA in 2013 after completing a master’s degree in public policy at George Washington University.

The following interview by assistant editor Kristin Hubing has been edited for length and clarity.

What is the goal of AASA’s annual superintendent salary and benefits study?

We’re creating a longitudinal data set of superintendent salaries, benefits and other contract information so that we have the resources to help our members get the best contract they can. Each year, we include a bank of “unique contract provisions” where members paste parts of their contract that are unique or helpful to them. Anyone who is renegotiating or negotiating a new contract can look through the provisions to see if there’s something useful they might want to include in their contract.

What other surveys do you conduct?

Our decennial study is an authoritative state of the superintendency report that has been conducted every decade since 1923, with mid-decade updates. We also conduct topic-based surveys with smaller samples of our membership, many of which we receive analysis and design assistance on from former Nevada superintendent Robert McCord, who is AASA’s research professor in residence.

For example, in 2013-14 we conducted a Common Core survey since it was the big issue of the day. A lot of news outlets were speculating about school leaders’ opinions on the issue, but we wanted to determine what superintendents actually thought so we could more accurately reflect our members’ opinions. We found superintendents very supportive of the new standards and the biggest problem they were having with the rollout was with the technology needed to run the tests. It became clear that they were open to the change and wanted to hold their kids to high standards, which was really helpful for reframing the conversation.

Tell us about the 2015 mid-decade update to the decennial study, which focused on women in the superintendency. Any surprising findings?

It’s clear there are a lot of difficulties for women in the superintendency. Female superintendents are less likely than their male counterparts to be married, more likely to be divorced and less likely to have children. It shows the toll that being a superintendent takes on women, specifically.

But we’re also excited to see the progress made in getting more women into the superintendency.

Do you partner with any organizations for your research?

Absolutely. The superintendent voice is obviously the most important voice to AASA, but it’s just a very small piece of the school system world. Partnering with other organizations like the Association of School Business Officials and the National School Boards Association gives us a broader look at opinions on various topics.

With whom do you share your results?

In addition to our membership and news outlets, we get a lot of requests from university students, many of whom are studying in Ph.D. programs to become superintendents. We try to be generous with our data, all anonymized, if it will help research and help future superintendents in their careers.

Why is the research you conduct important to advocacy efforts?

Our survey results tell us what our members think we should be focusing on or need help with, and having numbers behind our advocacy really helps strengthen our voice. I can say something on Capitol Hill until I’m blue in the face, but if I have actual concrete numbers in a report to hand to someone in a position of legislative power, I’m much more likely to be heard.

*Inside AASA is a new monthly feature about AASA services and products and the staff members behind them. Read full versions of the interviews here.*