Understanding Superintendents’ Approaches to the Implementation of District Systems in the Context of a Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a crisis that district superintendents and their leadership teams had not before experienced. In a matter of weeks, school systems needed to transition away from a traditional learning model, where teaching and learning occurred in a physical classroom, to a virtual learning environment. School districts were provided little time to strategically develop a model to transform their systems to continue to meet student learning goals. The districts were still expected to fully operate, while prioritizing the acquisition of resources that could provide the means for a deliberate shift to establish a virtual learning system. This qualitative study examined how superintendents aligned resources and implemented systematic change during the initial months of COVID-19. Findings show that the voices of the local community stakeholders played the most integral part in identifying the values that primarily influenced how the districts navigated the crisis. Choice was the most prevalent value and, as a result, stakeholders were provided learning offerings in myriad formats. Superintendents considered how their decisions would affect each stakeholder group, as well as every aspect of their organizational structure