Why school boards are betting on familiar faces

The nation’s 500 largest school districts have changed superintendents 745 times since 2020. Boards are increasingly looking within for their next leader.

But the pace of turnover is finally slowing, according to new research from ILO Group, an education strategy and policy firm. Among the nation’s 500 largest districts, 17.4% changed superintendents last school year.

Those rates ran at or above 20% in each of the five years after pandemic-driven school closures, and averaged between 14% and 16% before COVID. Notably, leadership held steady in just 78 districts since 2020, where superintendents had a median tenure of more than nine years.

“That’s a glaring fact because leadership change can interrupt strategy, reset priorities and force leaders to start over before the work has time to produce results,” said Julia Rafal-Baer, co-founder and CEO of ILO Group.

Half of superintendents hired during pandemic recovery have already transitioned. Of the 201 leaders onboarded between July 2020 and July 2022, 100 have left their positions.

School boards prioritized continuity in 2025—55 of the 94 replacements came from inside the district. This is consistent with District Administration’s tracking of superintendent transitions nationwide.

Boards want trusted administrators to manage budget pressures, enrollment shifts and academic recovery. Assistant, associate and deputy superintendents familiar with their district’s needs are frequently appointed to the top spot, typically after serving in an interim role.

These newly appointed leaders should already understand local politics, labor agreements and community dynamics.

Women, who are often hired from within, now lead more than one-third of the nation’s largest districts, according to ILO Group. At the current pace, the group predicts that women won’t reach parity among the 500 largest districts until 2048.

Additional findings

• More than 40% of of districts have changed superintendents twice since 2020.
• More than half of superintendent departures were replaced immediately by a permanent successor, rather than an interim leader.
• Turnover commonly occurs at the beginning or later stages of a superintendent’s tenure.

Read the full report here.