Superintendent turnover remains high

A new brief published by the policy firm ILO Group suggests that school superintendent turnover continues at historic levels. 

The 2025 update of the ILO Group’s Superintendent Research Project studied the nation’s 500 largest school districts. 

The findings: 

114 of the top 500 districts (23%) experienc[ed] at least one leadership change in the past year. That’s up from 20% the year before and higher than pre-pandemic historical averages of 14-16%.

Superintendent turnover skyrocketed during the COVID-19 era. The ILO group found that between March 1, 2020, and September 1, 2022, almost half (49 percent) of the nation’s 500 largest school districts experienced an administration turnover. 

(Interestingly, a record high of one in three superintendent positions are now held by women.) 

Superintendent resignations in particular were at a high in 2025, with at least 42.5 percent of national superintendent attrition attributed to resignation. The University of Texas at Austin’s Superintendent Lab notes, 

However, a substantial proportion of the increase in resignations may be attributed to interim superintendents, who we may expect to resign upon the district selecting a permanent superintendent. When we exclude interim superintendents, the gap between resignations and retirements narrows substantially. 

When interim superintendents are excluded, the resignation rate is a still-high 37.8 percent. 

How does Minnesota fit into this national puzzle? 

Of the nation’s 500 largest school districts, seven Minnesota districts had sufficiently high student populations to be included in ILO Group’s study. The superintendent hiring dates are below: 

• Anoka-Hennepin’s Cory McIntyre took the superintendent position in 2023
• Saint Paul’s Stacy Stanley took the superintendent position in May 2025
• Minneapolis’ Lisa Sayles-Adams took the superintendent position in 2024
• Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan ISD 196’s Michael Bolsoni took the superintendent position in 2024
• Osseo Area School District 279’s Kim Heil took the superintendent position in 2023
• South Washington County Schools’ Julie Nielsen took the superintendent position in 2020
• Rochester Public Schools’ Kent Pekel took the superintendent position in 2021.

Out of these seven districts, only St. Paul saw a superintendent change in 2025. However, none of the seven districts had a single superintendent that had served in the district before 2020 — meaning that the only on-the-job experience available to these superintendents came during or after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When the lens of analysis is expanded from the seven districts examined by the ILO Group to the thirty most populous districts in Minnesota, the picture becomes clearer.

 Almost two-thirds of the superintendents in Minnesota’s thirty most populous school districts began their tenure in the past five years. 

The University of Texas at Austin’s Superintendent Lab found that 60 percent of Minnesota’s school districts experienced at least one superintendent attrition event over the past six years. Additionally, Minnesota had a 14.6 percent superintendent turnover rate for the 24-25 school year. 

In an odd twist for a state that prides itself on equity, Minnesota trails most of the nation in regards to female superintendency rates. Minnesota has the fifth-fewest female superintendents in the nation (18.2 percent). The only states that had fewer female superintendents were Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and Ohio.

These high superintendent turnover rates cause problems, as administrative mandates change regularly in response. Researcher Christopher Redding has found that student achievement decreases slightly in the years after a superintendent turnover, with large schools, urban schools, and schools with high levels of poverty most likely to suffer poor effects. With almost two thirds of Minnesota’s largest school districts undergoing recent superintendent turnover, there are likely to be adverse consequences for students. 

Why is superintendent churn so common? To researchers, it’s still unclear. 

In the wider world of business, it’s well known that switching jobs, rather than waiting for a promotion, is the surest way to get a pay raise. Yet, in the world of education, switching jobs is not a practice that typically leads to expertise. School communities, policies, and students all differ from district to district, causing transitioning professionals to lose precious time and relationships by navigating district changes. However, it’s possible that superintendents don’t personally experience too many adverse results from their turnover. Could they be changing districts in the hopes of financial advancement? After all, many superintendents in Minnesota boast eye-popping salaries. 

The data casts doubt on that theory as a universal answer. Depending on the size of the district, only about one in five superintendents leave to seek other jobs in education.  However, that indicates that enough superintendents leave to seek other education jobs that retention might be an issue for many districts.

Occasionally, superintendents may switch districts because they’re looking for a challenge. For example, Stacie Stanley moved this year from Edina, where she’s spent the past three years, to the St. Paul school district. St. Paul is the second largest school district in the state, and is facing a number of issues, including a large budget deficit and low test scores. The St. Paul native has said that she took the job to serve her hometown community. Stanley is taking a pay raise of over $20,000 to do so, and her track record indicates that the salary boost may be well earned. In direct opposition to many of the downward educational slides in Minnesota, Stanley’s tenure in Edina saw rising math, reading, and science scores. 

Some experts point to the high level of resignations and terminations, especially in large districts, as evidence of a harsh political climate weighing down superintendents. Questions about low test scores, COVID-19 mandates, novel grading policies, ethnic studies curricula, and ongoing policy shifts from Washington can distract superintendents and easily embroil them in controversy. Gustavo Balderas, superintendent of the Beaverton School District in Oregon, said in an interview with The 74 on superintendent churn that “It’s always been political, but it’s never been so partisan.” 

Put in other words, some superintendents may just be worn out. 

One thing is clear. Quality, strong, and consistent leadership is desperately needed to reverse Minnesota’s declining test scores. Superintendents must make school districts accountable, and be accountable themselves. 

Teachers, apparently, also feel exhausted. Despite fully budgeted positions, many Minneapolis school districts recently struggled to hire new teachers. 

As more research investigates the root causes of superintendent churn, it is to be hoped that future policies can enable strong leaders to stay the course in their positions and pilot their districts well.