When is Tenure Long Enough? A Historical Analysis of Superintendent Turnover and Tenure in Urban School Districts

The short tenure and frequent turnover of urban superintendents has been attributed to the growing unmanageability of urban school districts. This instability at the top is said to limit the prospects for sustained reform. In this article, we calculate the average tenure of urban superintendents since the turn of the century. Our research suggests that the tenure of superintendents has been decreasing, but not in a linear fashion and not as precipitously as is often reported in the press. We believe that a complex mix of environmental, local, and professional factors may help explain changes in tenure, but the causal and interactive relationships between them remains a mystery. Nevertheless, our findings suggest the longer-than-anticipated tenures raise questions about the relationship of "short tenures" and the problems facing urban school districts.