This is the latest installment in the State of the Superintendent series, an annual report that presents a reliable, recurring snapshot of the U.S. public school superintendency. In spring 2025, superintendents of 208 districts were surveyed about their stressors, job satisfaction, and time use. The survey revealed that budgets narrowly topped superintendents’ list of stressors, and communications was among their most time-consuming activities.

State of the Superintendent

Selected Findings from the Spring 2025 American School District Panel

Anna Shapiro, Heather L. Schwartz

ResearchPublished Sep 25, 2025

This is the latest installment in the State of the Superintendent series, an annual report that presents a reliable, recurring snapshot of the U.S. public school superintendency. Since the American School District Panel began in fall 2020, researchers have periodically surveyed superintendents about their job, focusing on job-related stressors, job satisfaction, and time use. The survey revealed that budgets narrowly topped superintendents’ list of stressors, and communications was among their most time-consuming activities. The survey revealed a divide between superintendents of small districts (those with fewer than 3,000 students) and large districts (those serving 10,000 or more students).

Key Findings

  • Overall, superintendents’ reported job stress has declined from 2023 to 2025. Stress improved most for small-district superintendents, and was mixed for large-district superintendents.
  • Small-district superintendents flagged budgets as the most common source of job stress in 2025, as they did in the two prior years.
  • Large-district superintendents continued to mark the intrusion of political issues and opinions as the most common source of stress in their jobs.
  • Despite improvements in stressors, small-district superintendents posted a decline in positive feelings about their jobs from 2024 to 2025.
  • About five in ten small-district superintendents considered the role worthwhile in 2025, despite its stresses and disappointments, compared with seven in ten large-district superintendents.
  • As in 2024, superintendents in large districts spent most of their time on communications, particularly school board communications, while those in small districts devoted most of their time to school facilities, school staff communications, and budget.
  • Small- and large-district superintendents indicated that instruction, school data, parent communication, and communication with school staff should be where they devote most of their time; they also indicated that facilities, budgets, and school board communications should not be their most time-consuming activities.

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Shapiro, Anna and Heather L. Schwartz, State of the Superintendent: Selected Findings from the Spring 2025 American School District Panel. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-36.html.
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This report is based on research funded by The Gates Foundation. This work was conducted within RAND Education and Labor.

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