Leading Schools and Districts in Times of Crisis

The COVID-19 school closures highlighted the importance of crisis management for school and district leaders. Crisis management, however, has not received sufficient attention from school leadership preparation programs or education leadership researchers. This article synthesizes research spanning schools and other organizations, including those in the private sector, to describe a framework for understanding crises and crisis management in schools and districts and the key competences this literature suggests for successful navigation of crisis situations. We use this framework to discuss leaders’ responses to the COVID-19 school closures in spring 2020. We conclude with an argument for more consciously incorporating crisis management training into both preservice and in-service preparation and support for education leaders and for opening new lines of inquiry into crisis leadership at the school and district levels.