Marvin Edwards

The Modern School Superintendent: an Overview of the Role and Responsibilities in the 21<sup>st< / Sup> Century Marvin Edwards

An impossible job? That's what many have called the superintendency. With itsgrowing and completing demands, it is a profession that can baffle even the mostknowledgeable and well prepared. Public education resources have become morelimited. There are new national and state testing requirements. Social issues arepulled into the schools and want more control over their operation. Add in politicsand bureaucracy, and the end result is quite an unmanageable scenario. Unfortunately, more superintendents seem to be leaving the profession. Whether itis because of the demands superintendents face, the quality of preparation programsor a combination of both, the trend is a growing concern. Many superintendentsare unprepared to deal with what they may encounter in running a school district. Yet the office is not all doom and gloom. Offering opportunities that are unavailablein many other careers, the superintendency is a position in which you will be takenseriously by others. And it is a profession in which one person, through skilledleadership, can make a difference by getting everyone to pull together and create abetter environment for students. Surveys actually have shown that mostsuperintendents would become superintendents again if they had the chance.