Giving Compass' Take: 

• Gallup’s 2018 Survey of K-12 School District Superintendents found five priorities that they want to see through in the coming school year and the challenges that come with those priorities. 

• How will superintendents go about solving these concerns and is there room for collaboration? 

• Read about how to create a school culture around teacher innovation. 

Today’s superintendents are faced with a plethora of challenges, chief among them how to foster engaged citizenship among students and how to support students who are academically underprepared or battling poverty.

The vast majority of superintendents surveyed in Gallup’s 2018 Survey of K-12 School District Superintendents say they are excited about the future of their school district (86 percent), while just around half that (42 percent) say they are excited about the future of U.S. education overall.

  1. Engaged citizenship: The biggest change from last year’s survey is a spike in district leaders who agree that preparing students for engaged citizenship will be a challenge–74 percent this year, compared to 50 percent last year.
  2. Improving achievement: Superintendents say they struggle to improve the academic performance of underprepared students (89 percent) and to address the effects of poverty on student learning (84 percent).
  3. Educator retention: Finding and keeping highly-qualified educators rounds out the top two challenges superintendents face today. Eighty-three percent of surveyed superintendents say they struggle to find and retain talented teachers.
  4. Evaluating effectiveness: Around 90 percent of those surveyed say high school graduation rates, student engagement, and student hope are very important measures of public school effectiveness.
  5. College and workforce readiness: Fifty-three percent of surveyed superintendents agree or strongly agree that high school graduates are well-prepared for success in college, and 58 percent agree or strongly agree that college graduates are ready for the workforce.

Read the full article about k-12 education priorities by Laura Ascione at eSchool News