The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore through personal interviews the pathways to superintendency of Missouri district leaders with varying teaching and leadership experiences. The central questions guiding this research were the following: (a) How do Missouri public school superintendents with varying building-level experiences describe their pathway to superintendency?; (b) How do Missouri public school superintendents with varying building-level experiences describe their priorities of responsibilities as outlined by the AASA standards? The framework for this study was led by Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model. This study sought to explore the gap in research regarding differences in prior educational experience of superintendents and their leadership priorities. Ninety-nine Missouri superintendents participated by answering a survey in which they ranked the importance of the AASA standards, while 10 of those superintendents also participated in semi-structured follow-up interviews. The findings of this study included four themes: (a) desire to make a greater impact; (b) the importance of being visible and involved; (c) decisions are made with a student first mentality; and (d) knowledge of fiscal management is a priority. Local boards of education, as well as current and future superintendents, can benefit from information in this study as they look to fill district administrator positions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]