Blind Spots: Small Rural Communities and High Turnover in the Superintendency

This article examines high superintendency turnover through rural community members' perceptions of such attrition in their districts. Findings indicate that community members perceived high turnover as negative and believed that turnover was created by financial pressures, rural community resi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of school leadership Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 424 - 451
Main Authors Kamrath, Barry, Brunner, C. Cryss
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Rowman & Littlefield 01.05.2014
Sage Publications, Inc
Subjects
Administrator Characteristics
Community Attitudes
Educational Finance
Educational Trends
Elementary Secondary Education
Employee turnover
Financial Problems
Interviews
Labor Turnover
Life Style
Occupational Mobility
Older Adults
Resistance (Psychology)
Retirement
Rural Population
Rural Schools
School superintendents
Social Bias
Superintendents
United States (Midwest)
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Summary:This article examines high superintendency turnover through rural community members' perceptions of such attrition in their districts. Findings indicate that community members perceived high turnover as negative and believed that turnover was created by financial pressures, rural community resistance to educational trends, and bias against minorities and/or "outsiders." Interestingly, most community members talked about superintendent turnover as "just the way things are around here," attributing high turnover to what they considered external financial conditions (the superintendents' low salary and the state funding sources) and unwittingly putting themselves in a position of helplessness, or as victims, even when they controlled the amount of salary that they offered candidates.
ISSN:1052-6846
2631-9659
DOI:10.1177/105268461402400302