Superintendents for the 21st Century

The mission of public school leaders is to help children create a future where democracy is preserved and the ideals of this nation are moved forward, Mr. Houston maintains. And that is a wonderful challenge and an amazing gift to receive. I ONCE HAD a school board president who told me that my job as a superintendent was to be a quick-healing dartboard. And he was a supporter of mine! Over the years I have used a number of other metaphors to describe the role, all of them just about as unappealing. I get the greatest response when I say that the relationship of the superintendent to the community is analogous to that of a fire hydrant to a dog. The reality of the modern superintendency is that it is both exciting and exasperating, and we are finding it increasingly difficult to attract people to the role. Understandably, people don't want to be dartboards or fire hydrants. As we face the challenges of a new century, we must find ways to reconfigure the role of the superintendent so that it attracts our best leaders, even as we also transform it to meet the opportunities that change presents. There are a number of reasons why people are not interested in becoming superintendents. They see the "lightning rod" aspect of the job, and they choose not to do it. The superintendency is a job fraught with public criticism, mixed with private moments of triumph. Superintendents are sometimes abused and other times blamed. Expectations are high and often unrealistic. I have frequently thought that, if I ever write a book on the subject, I will call it "What Are You Going to Do About It? " That phrase sums up the almost universal expectation that somehow one person in an organization can shoulder the responsibility for all aspects of the organization. That person must provide the "final answer. " But, unlike contestants sitting opposite Regis Philbin, superintendents are given no lifelines to help with questions that seem to have no answers. Yet, when superintendents get together, after they vent about their problems, they tend to talk mostly about their successes. And many who leave the job find themselves working their way back into it. While the job is fraught with external pressures, it is filled with internal possibilities. Superintendents know they can change the trajectory of children's lives, alter the behavior of organizations, and expand the possibilities of whole communities. This creates a powerful attraction to the job. Such ambivalence makes the superintendency a wonderful subject of study. As education stands in the national spotlight, there are few roles as complex or as pivotal as that of the public school superintendent. And as we move into the future, it is inevitable that the job will continue to be one of controversy, concern, and consequence. Most of the people who have been superintendents have found it exhilarating and challenging in the best sense of that word. It is clearly a position in which a person can make a big difference. But there is much about the current role that is dysfunctional. Expectations and resources are mismatched. Accountability and authority are misaligned. This means there must be a shift in expectations and a corresponding shift in role. Part of the shift that must take place is a change in how the world sees and treats superintendents. But the bigger part of the shift must take place in the hearts and minds of those who fill the role. For how one chooses to confront the challenges of the superintendency will make all the difference. As a minister's son, I realized early in my own career as a superintendent that there are a great many spiritual overtones to the superintendency. The ultimate responsibility of the role is to shepherd other people's children through the often dangerous valley of childhood. So it is easy to see religious symbolism in the role. That led me to a realization that superintendents tend to spend most of their careers between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. …