Women outnumber men in K-12 roles except for superintendent. This former one shares her journey

Women outnumber men in almost all roles at all levels of K-12 education. Except, that is, when it comes to the top job: superintendent. That is among the findings of a study on the subject done by Dedee Lyngstad Brown, Pre-K-8 director of schools in the Sunnyside Unified School District in southern Arizona.

"Education is still one of the most lagging professions when it comes to equality in that very, very top spot," Brown said.

Brown found nearly 80% of the education field is female. But when it comes to superintendents, she says those jobs go to men more than 70% of the time. And for those women who do get the top job in a district, that job is not always an easy one to perform.

"One of the themes that came up in my documenting of my participants stories is that they were perpetually doubted. They constantly had to not only prove that they were ready for the next level, but then even once they got to that level, they constantly had to reassure their governing board or they had to do extra things to make sure that everybody knew that they were qualified," Brown said.

Dedee Lyngstad Brown

Brown says in general men did not have to do those things. She says mentorship and sponsorship are among the keys to reversing the trend. If there’s an outgoing superintendent, she says, it’s not uncommon for that person to sponsor a potential successor — that could range from encouraging that person to go out for the job to trying to boost support for them among members of a district’s governing board.

"Most of the women that I interviewed really talked about, if I want to change the future landscape of the superintendency, I have to continue to not only mentor women. I not only need to continue to sponsor women, but I also need to get my male colleagues on board, too. Are you looking at your entire constituency of future leaders?" Brown said.

One of those leaders is Lupita Hightower. She’s a retired superintendent of the Tolleson Elementary School District and a current member of Arizona’s Board of Education. She came by KJZZ's studios to talk about her experience and her journey to being a school superintendent, because it sounded like that wasn’t something she’d dreamed about from a young age.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Full conversation

LUPITA HIGHTOWER: That's absolutely fair. Never would I have dreamt to serve in that capacity as a school superintendent. My dream since I was a little girl was to become a school teacher, and my journey quickly took me into school administration. In the year 2000, after serving as a classroom teacher for a few years, George W. Bush was campaigning for president and his wife, Laura, came to the Phoenix area, and they selected two classrooms for the future first lady to visit. One of those classrooms was mine.

And as it goes, when you have a dignitary come into a school, you have the board, you have the superintendent, you have the assistant superintendent, the principal, the media. And one of the assistant superintendents took notice and felt that I was doing a great job in the classroom, Dr. Lyn Bailey.

And Dr. Lyn Bailey turned to the principal and asked if I could mentor teachers as an extra duty. And when I started doing that, I loved it. But I did hear an educator say a comment that took me into the journey of school administration.

That educator said, "these kids don't know anything, and their parents don't care." And that was not my experience. My experience was the students know a lot. They bring a lot of knowledge to the classroom. If we connect the knowledge that they bring to the classroom, have high expectations, the students rise to those expectations.

And as far as the parents not caring, I've never met one parent that does not want their child to do better than they ever did. So I thought, what if I go back to school and get my master's in school administration? And what if I could be an assistant principal? What if I'm an assistant principal and I'm able to influence two or three teachers in my staff? And so that's how school administration got started.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so at what point did being a superintendent seem like a reality for you?

HIGHTOWER: It took a long time. I served as a teacher mentor. I served as an assistant principal. I served as a principal. I then served as a director. And between principal and a director, I was going to school to get my doctorate.

One of my classmates was doing a study of the Latinas and the superintendency. So she asked three Latina principals in the program if we would ever dream of being a school superintendent. We all said, absolutely not, never.

BRODIE: How come?

HIGHTOWER: We felt that it was a difficult job. We felt that being a school principal had direct impact to the students. And we just did not see ourselves as such because we've never really seen any other Latina superintendents leading.

BRODIE: So it sounds like it was a combination of maybe not necessarily wanting the job, but also maybe not thinking that you could have it.

HIGHTOWER: Right. We just didn't imagine it. And feeling like that is a very dynamic role and job. And when I was director of instructional support, it quickly evolved to having many different roles. It was during the last recession, 2008, 2009, 2010, and as people were leaving the district office to different states, the superintendent would come to me and ask me, Lupita, could you do that job?

And I would say, yes, of course, it's a blessing, every single one of those roles. So I ended up having a lot of portfolios in the education system. And my response to Mr. Christensen at the time was, he was a superintendent. I have been a principal, I can do it all. Because the job of a principal is very dynamic.

And when he decided to move back to upstate New York midyear, he shared with the governing board that in his opinion, I would be the best one to run school operations until the board decided who they wanted to hire.

After a few months, the board would evaluate me every month. And after a few months they said, we would like to interview you and if we like what we hear, then we will not go out for a state or national search. And that's how it happened.

BRODIE: There's a lot of research, and I'm sure you're familiar with it, suggesting that women have a harder time becoming superintendents. That for all of the women that are in education, broadly, when you get to the very top, there are very few women.

I'm curious, you served in one of those roles as a superintendent. When you would talk to your colleagues in other districts, were they mostly men? Like, did you come across other female superintendents in your work with Tolleson?

HIGHTOWER: So that is correct, Mark. The research is very clear. Over 75% of the teachers in the field are female, but over 75% of the superintendents are male. So how does that work? How does that happen?

So, yes, it is my experience to be in a room mostly with males. Now, Arizona is doing a little bit better, Mark, in the area of female superintendents, it is still mostly male superintendents, but in Arizona, there has been a group of women leaders that have supported and fostered the leadership of superintendents and females.

BRODIE: And has that led to more females becoming school superintendents?

HIGHTOWER: Yes, that has definitely supported in that area.

BRODIE: What was going through your mind when you walked into that office on that first day, knowing that you are one of a very few women with this kind of job, what was it like for you walking in that office that first day?

HIGHTOWER: That very first day, and even right before that, every time that I had switched roles in education, it was to make a bigger difference. So the first thought that crossed my mind was, I have an opportunity to make a huge positive impact on the students, the teachers and staff that I serve.

And then fear. Oh my gosh, what if I make a decision that is going to negatively impact students, teachers and staff?

BRODIE: When you talk about fear, I wonder if maybe even subconsciously there's some kind of thought in your head that, like, look, if I screw this up, it's going to be harder for the next woman to get this kind of job?

HIGHTOWER: Definitely. And also the impact that it could have on the, on the students. So the impact that it could have on the, on the students and in your dreams and aspirations in serving in a school system is to better support the dreams of those students and the teachers and staff as well. And the responsibility of leading a school system is absolutely huge.

It is not just about instruction. That's the main point. That's the meat and potatoes of the work. But it's every single system, from food services to transportation to construction. So it's quite a dynamic role.