Superintendent turnover surges due to public education crisis 

Superintendent turnover in public schools has climbed to unprecedented levels, underscoring the broader crisis in public education apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new reports.

Data from the ILO Group shows superintendent turnover in the largest school districts reached 23% in the 2024-25 school year, with replacements in 114 of 500 of the top districts.

That followed a 20% turnover rate in 2023-24, when 100 districts saw departures, an increase of 15% over one school year.

“The last three annual data updates have shown that superintendent transitions occurred more frequently during and after the pandemic than before it, and that high rates of leadership turnover have persisted,” ILO said.

A previous report pegged the pre-pandemic baseline as 14-16% turnover for superintendents.

But when expanding the criteria to include all districts nationwide, the numbers shoot up substantially.

Spring figures from the Superintendent Lab at the University of Tennessee put the turnover rate even higher, at 37.8% when interim appointments are excluded.

Perhaps most striking is the number of superintendents who have been fired. The Superintendent Lab found 5.4% of departures in 2023-24 were dismissals for cause. That’s more than four times the national workforce average of around 1.1% turnover based on 2025 data supplied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These figures point to a system under heavy strain, with turnover often tied to performance dissatisfaction because of safety, academic or governance failures.

Several high-profile cases illustrate the trend, with many causes including misconduct, poor financial management, ethics complaints and board conflicts.

In September 2024, San Diego Unified’s Lamont Jackson was terminated following a sexual misconduct investigation and given six months’ severance.

On Oct. 2, Santa Clara County Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan was abruptly fired “without cause” after allegations of “inappropriate expenditure of public funds, approving suspect contracts and conducting unauthorized surveillance of employees and board members,” according to the Mountain View Voice.

Dewan later withdrew a lawsuit against the district after a judge ruled against her reinstatement.

Two weeks later in Florida, Alachua County’s Shane Andrew lost his position amid board conflicts. He was the seventh superintendent in just 10 years for the district, noted the Gainesville Sun.

Importantly, the topline figures may be underestimating the number of superintendents who have been let go for cause, said the Superintendent Lab.

The figures show 19.1% of all superintendent turnover has no attributable cause.

“In many cases – especially those involving legal disputes – the full details of a superintendent departure may remain undisclosed,” said a report footnote. “As such, our data and analyses likely underestimate the amount of superintendent attrition that takes place in a politicized context or contentious environment.”

Such settlements often include non-disclosure agreements, which obscure the reasons for termination.

In one case, Missouri’s Francis Howell School District paid incoming Superintendent Mike Dominguez $229,166, along with salary and benefits through July 31, under an agreement terminating his employment before he even started.

The agreement prohibits either side from disclosing the reasons for his departure unless compelled by a court – terms triggering an investigation by the Missouri State Auditor, reported The Lion.

Later news surfaced that a former assistant superintendent at Dominguez’s previous district was paid a substantial settlement over “potential claims against the district,” according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Experts say measures such as banning non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in severance deals or strengthening local board oversight, while diminishing unions’ role in superintendent selection, could ease the instability.

The Superintendent Lab’s data found 60% of Minnesota districts changed superintendents over six years, with turnover linked to declines in student achievement, particularly in the poorest schools, said the Center for the American Experiment.

“Almost two-thirds of the superintendents in Minnesota’s thirty most populous school districts began their tenure in the past five years,” the public policy group noted.

Elevated turnover, witnessed by resignations under pressure, terminations at quadruple the national average, and a lack of transparency certainly appears to indicate the crisis in public education reaches to the highest positions, despite their high relative salaries and prestige.