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Illinois School Board Journal
March/April 2002
Is it a shallow pool?
Perception or reality for superintendent searches
by Charles Rohn
Charles Rohn is chair and associate professor of Educational Administration at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. He also has served as a superintendent and a high school principal in Illinois.
Is the shortage of school superintendents reaching a crisis level? Consider what's being written in various nationally distributed magazines:
Time: "With their responsibilities growing, their authority eroding and their average tenure dropping to less than three years, ... school leaders now hold a dubious honor once reserved for anyone managing the New York Yankees under George Steinbrenner: they have the toughest job in America. The pool of applicants is shrinking, leaving millions of America's poorest kids ... in school systems run by the managerial equivalent of a substitute teacher."
Phi Delta Kappan: "How will we find leaders who can act as courageous champions for children and who are willing and able to change the status quo, while acting as collaborative catalysts and working with others to make that happen? ... There are really just four problems with the current leadership system: the job is impossible, the expectations are inappropriate, the training is inadequate, and the pipeline is inverted."
Education Week: "Stories abound about vacant superintendent positions attracting far fewer applicants than in the past. Crisis-ridden districts needing 'the best and the brightest' are having the greatest difficulty in attracting a high-quality applicant pool."
Or consider a report from the Illinois State Board of Education that indicates in the next three years 47 percent of current school administrators will become eligible for retirement. The Illinois Association of School Administrators also predicts at least 40 percent of sitting superintendents will retire in the next five years. These predictions, coupled with the number of superintendents who will move to another district and those who will leave the profession early, create the expectation of an astounding turnover in this critical leadership position.
There is a widely accepted belief that the pool of candidates for vacant superintendent positions is rapidly becoming very shallow. The perception is, that due to the combination of the aging of current superintendents, early retirement programs and the stresses of the position, a growing number of vacancies for superintendents exists each year and an even larger percentage will be vacant in the near future.
There is also the perception that, due to the challenges and responsibilities associated with the position, the number of people willing to apply is becoming smaller all the time. The pool is believed to be even shallower based on a criteria of "good, strong, qualified" applicants.
If these perceptions are correct, then boards of education will have an increasingly difficult time finding the quality of individual they need as superintendent and an even more difficult time keeping a good one.
A study of the superintendent vacancies over the 1998-99, 1999-00 and 2000-01 school years gathered information from the successful candidate for the position, a school board member involved in the search and a representative of the search firm, if one was used. During this three-year period, Illinois had 180 superintendent vacancies, which would represent approximately 20 percent of its districts looking for a new superintendent. All were surveyed, with 70 percent of the superintendents and 45 percent of the school board members and search firms responding.
While board members were satisfied with their final candidate, a significant number of them expressed concern about the size and quality of their pool of candidates. A large percentage (69 percent) said the person they eventually hired exceeded their expectations, while only 8 percent were disappointed with the quality of the person they selected.
Due to the vested interest they have in this individual at the beginning of the "honeymoon" period, this level of confidence might be expected. However, 40 percent of the board members said their pool of realistic candidates did not meet their expectations, while only 20 percent said the pool exceeded their expectations. Board representatives reported an average of 21 applicants, interviewing an average of four.
But a more significant factor may be that 42 percent of the districts had fewer than 10 applicants. These tended to be smaller, rural districts located in southern or central Illinois. By contrast, the 22 percent of districts that received more than 45 applications tended to be larger, suburban districts.
New superintendents reported they applied for an average of four positions, with one brave soul applying for 50. Not surprisingly, a very large percentage of the candidates applied for multiple positions.
Board members commented that they were very impressed with the majority of applicants they interviewed. Specific qualities included:
But while school board members said they valued successful prior experience, many also hired people without it. Of the new superintendents, 73.3 percent had no previous experience as a superintendent, while another 13 percent had fewer than four years experience at that level. Only 6 percent had more than 10 years experience as a superintendent.
All of the new superintendents had experience as a principal or in another administrative position. However, 44 percent had less than 10 years administrative experience at any level. While new superintendents were relatively inexperienced, they were not as young as might be expected. The very youngest new superintendents, under 35 years old, made up only 4 percent of the new group; 22 percent were under 45; 40 percent were over 50.
Board members also identified qualities that did not impress them. Representatives of the search firms cited these same negative impressions, mentioning:
The information gathered through this survey casts an interesting light on the status of the pool of potential superintendents. While wealthy suburban districts were able to attract a sufficient number of qualified applicants, a large percentage of districts have not. This supports the belief that the total pool of applicants for superintendent vacancies is becoming shallower.
As the pool shrinks, the competition for good candidates will become more intense. The impact of supply and demand will likely continue to result in increases in salaries and benefits for superintendents as well as the movement of superintendents. University programs will undoubtedly feel pressure to produce larger numbers of "qualified" candidates. The shortage may also increase the interest in alternatives to traditional certifications for the superintendency.
The information gathered in this study also raises questions about the perceived shortage of public school superintendents.
These very complex questions have no easy answers. The answers will vary differently from one school district to another. This study appears to indicate that the pool of candidates is indeed shrinking for a large percentage of school districts. Follow-up studies are being done to identify further information about the nature of the vacancies and those willing to fill them.
Obviously a great concern exists about the quantity and quality of the future leaders for our school systems. School leaders, board members and even leaders outside education have expressed concern and talk about the shortage of quality superintendents being at a "crisis" level. This "crisis" comes at a time when schools face great challenges from all sides. Numerous studies, articles, speeches and presentations have identified positive, strong leadership as an absolutely necessary ingredient for schools to meet the challenges facing them today.
"As education stands in the national spotlight," says Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, "there are few roles as complex or as pivotal as that of the public school superintendent."
According to Walt Warfield, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, districts that can afford to pay strong salaries, have an attractive location and have a good reputation for treating superintendents right will have no problem attracting good candidates for their superintendent position.
"However," he said, "districts that cannot or will not pay a competitive salary, have a reputation of being hard on superintendents, or are not in a desirable location, will have an increasingly difficult time finding or keeping a strong superintendent."
Thomas Glass, writing for Education Week, sees it this way: "The crisis in superintendent applicant pools is inextricably linked to how boards and their members relate to one another, to district employees and to the community. If these relationships are good, the chances are that the boards also will work well with most superintendents. But it appears that too many current superintendents and administrators interested in a future superintendency lack a positive view of these future employers. They do not trust boards to treat them fairly and with professional respect."
Two messages to members of boards of education are apparent from this information.
First, if you are fortunate enough to have a good superintendent, you need to do whatever you can to encourage him or her to stay. In public education, a strange phenomenon often occurs in the leadership ranks. A school board will not do anything out of the ordinary to recognize the efforts of a well-liked superintendent for fear of an outcry from the community or union. The longer the superintendent stays in this position, the less competitive his or her salary/benefits are going to be. Subsequently, the well-liked individual leaves for more money or support.
The result is that the district has to increase salary and benefits to attract an unknown quantity as its new superintendent. This does not seem to make sense, yet it happens with regularity.
Second, if a district is going to search for a new superintendent, it must be prepared to do some unusual things to attract the quality of individual desired to lead its schools.
The message to those considering entering the superintendent pool is that the door is wide open. Significant opportunities exist for those who are well trained and ready to lead our schools.
References
Broadway, J. "Illinois teacher/administrator shortage looms as pension-eligible group grows," Illinois School News Service, December 14, 2000
Glass, Thomas. "The shrinking applicant pool," Education Week, November 8, 2000
Houston, Paul. "Superintendents for the 21st century: It's not just a job, it's a calling," Kappan Home, 2001 (Available online: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/khou0102.htm)
Pierson, Max and Hall, Robert. "Illinois School Superintendent Survey," Illinois Association of School Administrators On-line Publication, May, 2001: http://www.iasaedu.org/publications/isss.htm
Pierson, Max and Hall, Robert. "Sixth annual survey: Reducing disparity may ease migration," The Illinois School Board Journal, January-February, 2001
Whitaker, K. "Where are the principal candidates? Perceptions of superintendents," NASSP Bulletin, 2001. Vo. 85
Winters, R. "A job for a super hero?" Time, February 7, 2000