Leadership and the U.S. Superintendency: Issues of race, preparation and impact

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the disaggregated data from the 2020 American Superintendent Decennial Study. The focus on superintendents of colour provides important insight into the ways individuals holding the highest rank in school districts govern the instructional, facilities, fiscal, personnel, and community relations matters as they comprehensively prioritise students' academic success and social wellbeing. Given the historicity of marginalisation of people of colour, the current heightened visibility of racial discrimination waged against the Black community, and the disproportionate health risks highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our focus on the US superintendency is poignantly timely and necessary. Purposely grounding this article in an asset-based approach of exploring the work and lives of superintendents who are not part of the hegemonic norm – by centreing superintendents of colour and women superintendents – we employ a lesser-used tactic of emphasising underexplored leadership experiences to highlight what we can learn from and appreciate about them. In doing so, we mirror the current state of the profession and the ways society influences it. Considering recent increases in efforts to support the humane treatment of Black lives on a global scale, this article corroborates existing evidence detailing the ways educators play a pivotal role in shaping children's lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Education leadership
• superintendent
• race
• gender
• intersectionality
• social justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In 2000, women accounted for 13.2 percent of the U.S. superintendents, which increased to 24.1 percent in 2010 (Kowalski et al. 2011, 18) and to 26.7 percent in 2020 (Grogan and Miles Nash 2021). Superintedents of colour were 5.1 percent in 2000, 6 percent in 2010 (Kowalski et al. 2011, 19) and 8.6 percent in 2020 (Grogan and Miles Nash 2021). https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_214.10.asp.

2 https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/leadership/doe-leadership-and-offices