During a period of eroding financial stability, many of the state’s largest districts also faced leadership instability.
Between 2006 and 2009, 71 percent of superintendents in California’s largest districts and 45 percent of all superintendents left their jobs, according to a survey of 215 districts randomly selected from the state’s approximately 1,000 districts. The survey covers well more than half of the state’s largest districts – those with more than 29,000 students in 2005–06.The survey data speak only to turnover during a three-year period, not longevity, and do not include interim superintendents who were leading districts during that time.
The results are “pretty stark,” and the high turnover rate of the biggest districts was a surprise, said Jason A. Grissom, an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt