About a dozen big cities are at this moment trying to hire new school superintendents, Lauren Camera notes in U.S. News,

Los Angeles, Washington, Houston, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City and Seattle are just a handful of the big cities looking to fill one of the most important jobs on their payroll – that of the school superintendent.

Also on the hunt: Columbus, Ohio; Newark, New Jersey; Jackson, Mississippi; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida. Until last month, New York City and Boston were also in the market.

These cities are ” jockeying to woo an ever-shrinking pool of qualified candidates for a demanding job that requires one part managerial skills, one part political savvy and one part education-policy acumen for a tenure that, on average, lasts barely more than three years,” Camera writes.

What type of person takes on a challenge like this? Several articles from the EdNext archive look closely at strong district superintendents in action.

In 2016, Richard Lee Colvin profiled Newark’s Chris Cerf.

In 2015, David Steiner wrote about Joel Klein’s book about his time as schools chancellor in New York City.

In 2014, William McKenzie profiled Houston’s Terry Grier.

In 2010, June Kronholz wrote about D.C.’s Michelle Rhee.

Way back in 2008, Dale Mezzacappa wrote about Paul Vallas. Alexander Russo had profiled Vallas for EdNext five years earlier.

— Education Next