Just in the past decade, for example, mainstream thinking about superintendents leading the instructional team has shifted markedly to a strong focus on school-site decisionmaking only to, again, shift back to the superintendent's office. The superintendent is now expected to lead teachers and principals in aligning the curriculum, raising academic standards, and producing better test results. Superintendents have always been hired to administer districts. Both managing and leading are core responsibilities expected from superintendents, even though they produce friction. Managing, for example, means keeping the organization working smoothly and efficiently toward its goals.
Stability is the password.
Reducing conflict is highly prized. Leading, on the other hand, means seeking changes, taking risks, and accepting conflict as a natural condition in the district. A century ago, reformers divorced partisan politics from the conduct of schooling. The power of that norm remains strong today. None of this means that superintendents avoid practicing politics.