Superintendent as Civic Leader

Embracing a new, more realistic vision for leadership of public school systems in a politically fragile time

The job of the superintendent is notoriously demanding, but these days too many superintendents say they want out. Even worse, many potential superintendents say they don’t even want in. Who can blame them?

The pressure to improve academic outcomes is intense. Financial and human resources are diminishing, and the culture wars are just plain ugly. It seems wise, in some ways, to steer clear of the job. Superintendents often say it isn’t what it used to be. They miss the days when they could focus more of their time on teaching and learning.

Making matters worse is the accumulating list of talented and proven superintendents who have been caught in the crossfire of political challenges and controversy, departing their positions early and not on their terms. Whatever the news may say about their departures, we know these stories give aspiring superintendents pause. As we work alongside sitting and aspiring superintendents, countless leaders have expressed their concern about the increasingly political nature of the job.

Yet there are thousands of talented, dynamic current and future superintendents across the country. We need them to be able to see themselves in the role and to have a positive vision of what they can accomplish.

Recently, we’ve been talking with superintendents, including newer ones, who are trying to redefine the job for themselves, and they are experiencing success as a result. Barbara Mullen, superintendent in Rush-Henrietta Central Schools outside Rochester, N.Y., Mark Estrada, superintendent in Lockhart, Texas, and Daniel Hile, superintendent in Noblesville, Ind., say they are clear-eyed about both the challenges and the risks. They are trying to embrace what the job is (a largely political one), not what it once was (a predominantly instructional one), which is both clarifying and liberating.

Instead of the long-standing and prevailing view of superintendent as “lead teacher,” they see themselves as key civic leaders, guiding their communities toward a shared vision of success for their children, communicating in ways that build trust, mending fissures where they can and paving the way for positive change. They say it is demanding work, but more rewarding when reframed in this way.

Mobilizing Shifts

We believe the time is ripe for a new vision of the superintendency. We have three big ideas we believe are necessary to make the shift.

No. 1: We need to be more realistic about what the job of superintendent really is.

Mullen, who started her current post in April 2023, describes her job as “a filter, a distiller, a purifier.” As she sees it, her job is to heal divisions, to communicate truth, to inspire change and to bring hope to her community during a time when everything seems broken.

This isn’t the job of an instructional leader as we’ve historically defined it. It isn’t even the job of a talented manager. It is the job of an astute political leader who can navigate the conflicting opinions of adults in service of positive change for children.

Based on research conducted by the Collaborative on Political Leadership in the Superintendency (see related article, right), the political part of the job requires a unique set of knowledge, skills and dispositions.

For example, superintendents must have a deep understanding of local constituent groups and how they work, including school boards, unions, community groups, parent groups and student groups. They must practice proactive political leadership skills with an emphasis on visioning, communicating, political mapping and movement building. And they must be willing to be a constant community presence.

Hile, who began as Noblesville’s superintendent in July 2022, shared his view of political leadership as a crucial responsibility this way, saying: “If you aren’t fighting for your community, who is?”

While instructional and managerial leadership are still essential, it looks different when you are in the superintendent role. Prior to being named the superintendent in Lockhart in 2018, Estrada had been focused on driving instructional excellence as a principal and then as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

When he became superintendent, the goal remained the same, but his role in advancing it changed. His new job was to create the conditions that made excellent teaching and learning possible, not to be the primary driver of the instructional program.

This meant spending his time differently. Estrada needed to transition from “down and in” — focusing on staff and execution — to “up and out” — focusing on the community. “My role was to ensure that everything was aligned to our vision of 1.5 years of growth in reading and math,” he says.

Unlike other cabinet-level roles, most of the superintendent’s time is focused on paving the way, mobilizing constituents and garnering the resources for change. This is the job only a superintendent can do, and it is a job worth doing well.

No. 2: To embrace their externally facing role, superintendents need excellent teams.

When new superintendents enter the role, they aren’t asked to be the leaders they always have been — just bigger, broader, more. Their job isn’t to keep being a great principal, chief academic officer or deputy superintendent, but with some additional duties. And they can’t do two jobs at once, their new job and their old job, by just working harder.

Those of us who work with superintendents need to encourage and support them to build and lean on a strong team they can trust and develop so the team works effectively together.

According to Mullen, it is all about creating “inter-dependence” as opposed to dependence on her. If her team members need to solve a problem related to implementation, she wants them to get out of their silos and talk to one another about it. She will weigh in when needed, but she needs team members strong enough to address problems of implementation while she is out paving the way for change in the community. If her job is to be accessible, she can’t be too consumed with “busy work,” so empowering others is crucial for success.

As Hile describes it, that doesn’t mean being hands-off on running one’s cabinet or leadership team, it just means having total faith and confidence in them to do much of the day-to-day internally facing work.

If that is the case, building one’s leadership team must be one of superintendents’ most important priorities, especially early on in one’s tenure, even if it involves difficult decisions and personnel changes. Most superintendents in mid-sized and larger districts will need a strong “number two” who can drive the execution of the vision and day-to-day instructional program. In smaller districts, the team of principals will have to take on much of this responsibility.

These shifts in duties are necessary to enable the superintendents to embrace the work that only they can do while fulfilling their obligation as instructional leaders who are accountable for the results of their school districts.

In short, superintendents can’t do it alone, and we should stop asking them to.

No. 3: Superintendents need ongoing opportunities to learn about the real job.

If the superintendent’s job is largely one of civic leadership that is externally facing, which requires a strong, internally facing team, we need to change the way we develop and support them.

Superintendent preparation and support programs would benefit from new frameworks that better define the work of the superintendent. New descriptions of the work can inform the design (or re-design) of programs in a way that prepares aspiring and sitting superintendents for the realities of the job. The Holdsworth Center offers useful resources on this point. (See additional resources, right.)

Even with better frameworks that describe the work, we know that much of the learning about the real job happens on the job. Superintendent preparation programs must challenge themselves to develop real-world, job-embedded learning opportunities for aspiring superintendents. This will require partnering closely with aspiring superintendents’ current superintendents to identify challenging, developmental work that will give candidates real exposure to the pressures and demands of the role.

For sitting superintendents, nothing is more important than having access to experienced superintendents who can act as mentors and guides. These mentors often are retirees willing to share their wisdom with the next generation. Next-generation leaders such as Mullen suggest that, while intergenerational support is helpful, we also need a new and younger generation of coaches and mentors, ones who understand what it is like to lead today.

Superintendents also need regular access to communities of practice for support and opportunities for live problem solving. These facilitated spaces are ones where superintendents can regularly connect with peers to give and receive feedback on timely problems of practice in relation to the job that only they can do.

Along these lines, Hile hosts a weekly Zoom call for superintendents in Indiana for problem solving around challenges facing district leaders, which periodically include political scenarios. But these opportunities aren’t readily available at scale, especially to superintendents who lead smaller or more rural districts. More organizations that serve and support superintendents can make these crucial spaces available for superintendents to hone their political and civic leadership skills.

A Call to Action

We never have needed skilled, courageous superintendents more than we do today. By presenting a concrete vision of the job of the superintendent, one that highlights civic leadership as central to their work, we can enable more of the talented people who work in our schools to see themselves in the role.

With better support for aspiring and sitting superintendents, they also can see themselves thriving in it while leading the way to a better future. 

Jennifer Perry Cheatham, a former superintendent, is senior lecturer on education and co-chair of the Public Education Leadership Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass. Lindsay Whorton is president of The Holdsworth Center in Austin, Texas.