Public School Superintendent Turnover in Appalachian Kentucky

This study makes use of a data set detailing instances of public school superintendent turnover in the commonwealth of Kentucky between 2014 and 2023. A quantitative research design was used to analyze descriptive statistics and salary changes based on a set of demographic and descriptive variables in the sample of 205 superintendent turnovers occurring during the identified decade. The research demonstrates that superintendent turnover in Appalachian and non-Appalachian school districts is proportionally consistent. Within the Appalachian region of Kentucky, the analysis reveals that salaries for superintendents hired during the study period were lower than the salaries paid to their predecessors, at a rate comparable to the commonwealth as a whole. That trend did not hold when a male replaced a female as superintendent as, on average, the new hire saw a salary increase over the incumbent. The analysis reveals a disparity between females and males selected to fill superintendent vacancies, with 71 males and 18 females hired into the role during the decade reviewed, most often with males replacing males. The findings demonstrate that applicants for superintendent positions serving as assistant superintendents or in other central office positions are selected for the superintendency nearly 60% of the time. The findings demonstrate that sitting superintendents and, to a lesser extent, internal hires, were likely to receive a starting salary higher than the incumbent compared to external hires other than sitting superintendents and/or those from other school or district leadership positions or those hired from outside agencies. Suggestions for future research, including assembling and analyzing comparable data sets in other states, are provided. Given the implications of the findings in this study, additional research with the assembled data set also holds promise.