How Superintendent Retention, Mobility, and Attrition Vary by Personal and District Characteristics: An Indiana Study.

Abstract

Superintendent retention is associated with increased student achievement and, potentially, a district’s financial stability. Prior research suggests that retention, mobility, and attrition may be influenced by personal and professional factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, years of experience, and amount of compensation. Likewise, a district’s urbanicity, size, financial condition, and political culture among school board members predict whether superintendents remain in their districts. Notably, research on superintendent retention in Indiana is both dated and limited. Thus, there is clearly a need for a better understanding of superintendent retention, mobility, and attrition within the state. The current descriptive quantitative study analyzed data from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to calculate average retention, mobility, and attrition rates for superintendents in Indiana public school districts, how these rates vary based on personal and professional factors, and how long superintendents serve in their districts. This comprehensive quantitative study, spanning a decade of unique data on superintendent and district characteristics, reveals that 84.5% of superintendents remained in the same district, while 4.1% moved to different districts within the state, and 11.4% left the state’s education system all together. The state retained superintendents differently depending on their personal and district characteristics. Women and leaders of color were more likely to remain in the same district than men. Superintendents in rural settings were more likely to move than superintendents in urban and suburban areas. On average, superintendents remained in their school districts for 4.07 years. The findings of this study provide important insights into the retention, mobility, and attrition of superintendents in Indiana and suggest that, on the whole, the state’s superintendent workforce behaves similarly to those of other states throughout the nation.