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Editor’s note: Our guest blogger today is Noelle Ellerson. She is the Assistant Director, Policy Analysis & Advocacy for the American Association of School Administrators (AASA, a member of the Learning First Alliance). Her efforts are focused on both policy and advocacy. She handles research/analysis supporting AASA’s advocacy work for public education, including AASA policy-related surveys and research to help school administrators better understand federal policy and inform federal education policy decisions. She also represents AASA's advocacy priorities on Capitol Hill, including funding and appropriations, ESEA, child nutrition, rural, and charters/vouchers, among others.

Today, AASA is releasing The American School Superintendent: 2010 Decennial Study. It is, as our Executive Director described in his Executive Perspective column in The School Administrator, a must-read report for every superintendent, aspiring system leader and those involved in their training. The press release and media conference being held for today’s release will give an overview of the rich content detailing the ever-changing faces of America’s public school administrators. It gauges everything from race, gender, and political positions to board relations, tenure trends, and educational preparation.

I’ll let the press release and conference, however, detail the summaries and sound bites. I want to delve more into the process that is the 2010 Decennial Study. Starting in April of 2009, under the guidance of lead authors Ted Kowalski and Bob McCord, AASA embarked on its once-per-decade study looking at how the state of the superintendency has—or has not—changed over the last ten years. While the goals behind this study mirrored those of earlier iterations (namely, reflecting today’s superintendents), there were many changes in the first decennial study of the 21st century:

• The administration of the survey was completely electronic. AASA used a web-based tool to distribute surveys and collect and analyze results.
• The survey items were subject to strict scrutiny in an effort to generate useful information that captures a broad variety of the characteristics and trends in today’s school superintendents.
• We were able to survey both members and on-members, giving our sample size and response set an extra level of validity.

Many hands made (relatively) light work. Outside of the original four authors (Ted Kowalski, Bob McCord, George Petersen, and Phillip Young), a host of current and former administrators, including current AASA staff and current AASA members, were deeply involved in the creating and vetting of the survey items, helping to properly expand and narrow, revise and refine the questions we asked.

My initial involvement, that of in-house data geek, was expanded to include co-author when I was given the opportunity to write the race/gender chapter. Translating data and survey responses into written analysis brought me back to grad school, spending weekends in the library, researching and writing my master’s thesis. It also gave me a respect for the true process of writing and publishing, taking volumes of data and telling a story that is both helpful and valuable to the profession is describes as well as a more general community.

At first glance, the decennial study might seem like a quick snap shot of today’s school superintendents. Its application is broader, with relevance to not only superintendents, but also teachers, parents and communities. There is consensus on the importance of an education community meeting the needs of the students it serves. This study helps detail the demographics and dynamics not only of today’s school superintendents and the schools they serve, but also the relationships and dialogues that impact all aspects of public schools: schools board, political issues, federal policy priorities, funding realities, federal/state/local relations, and more.

Looking back over the past 18 months, I think I was most impressed—though not at all surprised—by the collegiality and professionalism of the people I was able to work with. I was most struck by how my experiences with them echoed the results we were finding in the survey: a commitment to public education, an unwavering affirmation that a career in school administration was their true calling, a deeply laid belief that students need schools that can help them learn and develop and that a crucial component to that is quality school and system leadership. I was an outsider, in terms of experience as an administrator, and it was a great lens through which to watch this process.