An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair

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July 2003
Howard Fuller, Christine Campbell, Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey, John Immerwahr, Abigail Winger

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Based on a survey of superintendents from 100 of the nation’s largest urban and ex-urban districts and on interviews with 40 large-district superintendents, this study concludes that the consensus of urban school superintendents is that many of the conditions of the superintendency set them up for failure. In particular, superintendents believe that:

• The structure of the position virtually precludes them from doing what they were hired to do. (Chapter 1)
• Although the policy discussion about schools revolves around student achievement, local school dynamics are driven by employment demands. (Chapter 2)
• They do not control their own agendas but are whipsawed by the demands of competing power centers within the system. (Chapter 3)
• Crisis can empower them. Although changing and fickle demands from the public are hard to follow, external pressure and even crises can strengthen leaders’ hands, enabling changes that would otherwise be impossible. (Chapter 4)
• Although some districts are making progress in improving the performance of minority students, the skill in shortest supply is how to close the achievement gap. (Chapter 5)
• While non-traditional superintendents try to think outside the box, they are struggling with the same issues as their traditional peers and their success is by no means assured. (Chapter 6)
• Training can be improved, but experience counts for a lot. The superintendency is a public management position in which political skill and calculation are as important as expertise about instruction. (Chapter 7)
• They need to be freed from constraints. Superintendents want the authority they need to become true educational CEOs. (Chapter 8)
• Barriers to school reform are too numerous to overcome just with new and better leadership. Preparation must be improved and district governance should be reshaped. (Chapter 9)

Overall, the study concludes that veterans of the urban school wars in the largest school districts believe the job is undoable. Expectations for superintendents’ performance are so high they are unlikely to be met with current resources and existing authority. Incumbents in most of the nation’s other large urban and suburban districts share that view, but pull their punches and choose their words more carefully.

This study argues that superintendents need enough authority to lead and change their districts. Given the expectations imposed on them, they deserve authority commensurate with their responsibilities. The final chapter outlines a constellation of changes required to empower superintendents, ranging from more authority over central office staff and hiring to more stable and effective school boards.

In the end, the issue is not simply finding better leaders or even improving existing structures. Both are essential of course. The real issue is how to build and sustain strategies for eliminating the achievement gap in big cities. Good superintendents will be those who are committed to doing that, regardless of background or training. Effective superintendents will be those enabled to do what needs to be done to achieve that goal.