A study of superintendent turnover in public school districts on the Navajo Nation in the states of Arizona and New Mexico

The school district leadership, specifically the superintendent, is responsible for the overall operation of a school district. Research has documented the importance of the superintendent in providing leadership for student achievement and the overall effective operation of the school district. School districts on the Navajo Nation have historically experienced high turnover for superintendents. This study sought to determine the reasons why public school district superintendents on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico choose to resign or are terminated.; A semi-structured interview process was used with 18 superintendents to answer the research questions. The interview included 14 superintendents who had voluntarily resigned from their positions and four superintendents who had been terminated. The superintendents were from eight public school districts on Navajo Nation in the state of Arizona and two from public school districts on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Data from the interview were analyzed using qualitative research methodology to identify common themes and patterns.; The data analysis identified several reasons why superintendents chose to resign from their positions. The most commonly cited reasons were related to politics, family, community, personal, and Navajo culture and language. The reasons why superintendents were terminated were found to be related to conflict with the school boards, poor management of construction projects and poor management of district funds.; Recommendations for policy, practice and further research were made. It is recommended that further research be conducted on how the Navajo culture, heritage and language impact school governance in areas more broadly than just superintendent turnover. Additional research should also be conducted on principal turnover which is also high on the Navajo Nation. It is also recommended that any additional research on school governance or administration turnover include the public school districts in Utah. These districts are also located on the Navajo Nation and have high enrollments of Navajo students.