The Evolving Role of ‘The Modern Superintendent’

The first Askwith Education Forum of the fall 2026 semester celebrated the launch of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s new Initiative on Superintendent as Civic Leader (ISCL) and the changing landscape of public education leadership.

“The Modern Superintendent: School and Civic Leader” served as springboard for ISCL’s work stewarding the future of public education. Announced in September, ISCL aims to build the capacity of superintendents to meet the moment as the role evolves amid a rapidly changing educational picture.

Introducing the evening’s events, Academic Dean Martin West said superintendents have “one of the most consequential jobs in America” but noted their positions are often the least understood in education.

“The superintendent is responsible for student learning, but in many communities they are also the largest employer, run one of the largest transportation and food systems, and steward the one public institution that still reaches every family in every neighborhood,” said West. “More and more, they’re also the person standing at the center of a community’s hardest conversations about budgets and school closures, about what children should learn, about the technology they should use and, ultimately, about who belongs.”

The conversation was moderated by Senior Lecturer Jennifer Perry Cheatham, founder of ISCL, and showcased the institute’s three senior fellows: Russell Booker, CEO of the Spartanburg Academic Movement and former superintendent in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Kyla Johnson-Trammell, CEO of Oakland Thrives and former superintendent in Oakland, California; and Michael Matsuda, executive in residence at Loyola Marymount University School of Education and former superintendent in Anaheim, California. As fellows, the three experienced educators and leaders will shape the initiative’s growing community of practice through research-based tools, field building efforts, and professional development offerings, continuing HGSE’s legacy of support and innovation in the realm of public education leadership.

“HGSE has evolved this work again and again to meet the moment,” said Cheatham. “Knowing full well that public education, this essential American institution that we cherish, is a work in progress and will always be given our ambition to offer an excellent education to every child in America no matter how they are situated.”

Overhead in Askwith Hall: Key Take Aways

The Cost of Superintendent Turnover

During Cheatham’s introduction of the panel, she noted the high cost of superintendent turnover on student achievement: according to a 2026 survey published by The School Superintendents Association (AASA), the average time spent in a superintendent role for those surveyed is just 5.4 years. Other studies noted 62%of public schools have witnessed at least one leadership change since 2019, and a majority of parents and the general public say K–12 schools are headed in the wrong direction. The impact of chronic superintendent instability has been measured as well: costing up to two months of academic progress according to a study published earlier this year.

“Our argument tonight is that every aspect of a superintendent’s job must be performed through a civic leadership lens,” Cheatham said. “With all that is going on, coupled by an urgent need for change and reinvention on the horizon, superintendents need preparation and support that will enable them to navigate conflict with skill and empathy to sense public sentiments and build coalitions and to sustain a shared sense of purpose.”

Building Durable Skills: ‘The 5 Cs’

Matsuda shared a philosophy his district adopted to “move beyond test scores” and work to build “durable skills” after speaking with students about where schools were failing them. They adopted “The 5 Cs” of Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Compassion, and worked to develop their teaching workforce to model those ‘5 Cs’ as a result.

“If we can unleash that talent,” Matsuda said of his teachers, “We can unleash the talent of children across America.”

Skills That Can Be Taught

Johnson-Trammell noted superintendents are not born equipped with the skills and tools necessary to thrive as a civic leader, but they can be taught. Sharing lessons from her work leading the Oakland Unified School District, she noted the “discipline” it takes to be an active listener and learn from the students, parents, and teachers in a community to find solutions to problems together.

“You have to understand the love language of any community you’re speaking to,” Johnson-Trammell said, noting the unique history of activism in Oakland. “You have to appeal to the heart.”

Cultivating SMIRF

Booker advocated for superintendents to borrow thinking from the philanthropic world and consider how to build different kinds of capital among stakeholders in a community. He shared an acronym, SMIRF, that broke down the different kinds of capital leaders can utilize to build coalitions among different groups of people.

SMIRF
Social capital
Moral capital
Intellectual capital
Reputational capital
Financial capital

Describing a community center project he worked on in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Booker described using various forms of capital to bring in local businesses, religious institutions, and other groups to the project while leaning on the district’s reputational capital to build partnerships that created mutual goals for the project.

“We’ve got connections with so many different entities across communities,” said Booker. “We’ve got to be willing to deploy our community.

You can watch the entire Askwith Education Forum in the video above.