The paper, published this month by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, is among the first to examine the consequences of superintendent turnover, and the first to explore the cumulative effects of multiple leadership changes over a short period. It comes as separate, newly released data show the turnover rate of superintendents in the 500 most populous districts in the nation dropped significantly to 17.4% in the 2025-26 school year after peaking at 23% the school year prior. Still, the annual turnover rate is above pre-pandemic norms of about 14-16%.
The study, conducted by Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas, found that districts with more than one leadership change over seven years, between 2019 and 2025, showed nearly a month less learning in math than districts with no superintendent changes.