State of the Superintendent 2024

This is the latest report in the State of the Superintendent series, an annual report intended to provide a reliable, recurring snapshot of the U.S. public school superintendency. Since the American School District Panel began in fall 2020, researchers have periodically surveyed superintendents about their job, focusing on job-related stressors, job satisfaction, and intentions to remain in the profession. New for this year was a question about which activities take up the largest share of superintendents' time. The survey revealed a divide between superintendents of small districts (those with fewer than 3,000 students) and large districts (those serving 10,000 or more students). For example, in spring 2024, district budgets topped small-district superintendents' list of stressors, but the intrusion of political issues and opinions into schooling was the most common stressor among large-district superintendents. Meanwhile, superintendents of large districts stated that their most time-consuming activities were external and internal communications, whereas those in small districts spent more time on budgets and on school facility maintenance and operations. The differences are so large as to suggest that the very job of the superintendent—and, therefore, likely the skills needed most to succeed in the job—is substantially different in large (urban) versus small (mostly rural) districts.