This paper discusses three related studies conducted in California in the mid-1960s that investigated factors related to incumbent defeat in school board of elections and turnover in the school superintendency. The first study dealt with turnover in the superintendency subsequent to defeat of a single incumbent board member; a significant relationship was found between incumbent defeat and involuntary turnover in the superintendency. The second study focused on the selection of new superintendents following incumbent defeat. This study showed that "new" school boards selected "outsiders" to replace superintendents who left their positions subsequent to changes on the board. The third study dealt with predictors of incumbent defeat. The strongest predictors identified were (1) percentage change in assessed valuation eight years prior to the first defeat of an incumbent, (2) percentage change in average daily attendance in the three-year period prior to incumbent defeat, and (3) the ratio of votes against incumbents to total votes cast in the school board election immediately before the election in which an incumbent was defeated. (Author/JG)