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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 ...