The American School District Panel

A nationally representative survey of school district leaders

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is a nationally representative recurring survey of school district leaders in the United States. The surveys provide an opportunity for superintendents to share their perspectives and contribute to decisions about education policy and practice. The ASDP is a research partnership between RAND and the Center on Reinventing Public Education. The panel also collaborates with several other education organizations, including the Council of the Great City Schools and MGT, to help ensure we produce actionable results.

Focus Areas

Accountability, Assessment, and Oversight, Politics of Change

EXPERTS

Paul Hill

Founder, CRPE

Melissa Kay Diliberti

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Paul Hill

Founder, CRPE

Melissa Kay Diliberti

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

All ASDP reports are available on the American School District Panel Website.

REPORTS & commentary

CRPE’s American School District Panel publications

What Counts as Civics? A Look at How Districts Define and Facilitate Civic Learning

Managing Through the Noise: How Superintendents See Shifts in the Federal Role in Education

Still an Impossible Job? Large District Leaders Navigate Hazards—and Need New Solutions

When Challenges Never Let Up: School District Leaders Steer through Hazards in Baltimore and Chicago

A kindergarten teacher assigns students to the different activity centers they want to explore.

Teaching Recovery? Three Years In, School System Leaders Report the Pandemic Weakened Instruction

Child at protest with hands that say "our future in your hands"

Navigating Political Tensions over Schooling: Findings from the Fall 2022 American School District Panel Survey

Whack-A-Mole: School Systems Respond to Disrupted Learning in 2021

The State of the American School District: Policy Recommendations for the Road Ahead

The State of the American District: Refocusing State and Local Agendas on Teaching, Learning, and Engagement

How Six School Systems are Responding to Disrupted Schooling: Will It Be Enough?

“Public Education Will Never Be the Same”: How COVID-19 Forced School District Leaders to Innovate on the Fly

Other Work

Research reports and publications about this project.

Aug 2025

Beyond the Headlines: What Civics Education Looks Like Right Now

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026, debates over democracy, rights, and free speech dominate headlines. At the same…

A student contemplates her response to a writing prompt in English class. **THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED TO REMOVE OR OBSCURE STUDENT IDENTITIES.**

Aug 2025

What Counts as Civics? A Look at How Districts Define and Facilitate Civic Learning

A new report from the American School District Panel, a research partnership between RAND and CRPE, examines how districts define and facilitate civic…

So, How Did I Do? A Response to My 2024 Predictions on Education

Innovation and the Future of Learning

Jan 2025

So, How Did I Do? A Response to My 2024 Predictions on Education

Last February, I went out on a limb and made ten predictions about what we’d see this year in terms of policy and practice. At the time, I said: “Unli…

May 2024

AI Is Coming to U.S. Classrooms, but Who Will Benefit?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving at lightning speed, but will U.S. classrooms be able to evolve with it—and take advantage of its potential be…

Students line up on socially distanced dots painted on the sidewalk to wait their turn to have their temperatures checked before entering Middletown High School.

Learning Recovery

Nov 2022

District leaders eager to tackle learning loss face ongoing challenges

School district leaders, still working to restore the learning children lost during the pandemic, are continuing to find the job even harder than expe…

May 2022

‘The space and grace is evaporating:’ School leaders eager to tackle learning loss faced unexpected challenges this year. They’ll need help to lead everyone back on track

Read the entire piece published by Brown Center Chalkboard at the Brookings Institution, or download it as a PDF. School and district leaders had h…

Mar 2022

Gut-check Moment for School Superintendents — Toxic Politics, Demands for New Services, Struggles to Deliver Basics Make ‘Impossible Job’ Harder than Ever

This piece was originally published by The 74. Amid all the concern about staffing shortages in America’s schools, the continued strain is showing up…

Finding teachers and bus drivers is a big problem, but a different staffing challenge is looming in school districts

Learning Recovery

Feb 2022

Finding teachers and bus drivers is a big problem, but a different staffing challenge is looming in school districts

Back in fall 2021, we at the American School District Panel surveyed school districts nationwide to better understand their staffing challenges in the…

Jun 2021

Don’t risk innovation and family trust with a rush to in-person learning

After opposing in-person schooling for more than a year, teachers unions and some Democratic elected officials have flipped, and now want to end all o…