Suchergebnisse

Remarkably few females hold the position of superintendent of schools; although, there are capable women in the educational field who are qualified and interested in obtaining the position of superintendent of schools. Researchers proposed many reasons for this disparity, including the lack of studies regarding females in the superintendency. This research study sought to determine how one African-American female entered the male dominated executive position to become superintendent of a large school district in a southern state. The following research questions were used to determine how this African-American female constructed her understanding of her leadership role through the lenses of cultural experiences, gender, and ethnic identity: (a) How does the participant define and construct an understanding of her leadership role through the lenses of cultural experiences, gender, and ethnic identity as a school district leader?, (b) What are the benefits and advantages, as well as, the complexities and problems, faced being an African-American female school district leader?, (c) How were the encountered barriers addressed and overcome during the quest to obtain the superintendency?, (d) What leadership assumptions appear to form the basis for the leadership behaviors of a practicing African-American female superintendent?, (e) How do the expectations from the school board members and the schools' communities impact the decision making process?, and, (f) What political, educational, and demographical contexts of the schools and communities framed leadership behaviors? The purpose of this study was to identity and describe, through a case study, how one African-American female superintendent constructed an understanding of her leadership role through the lenses cultural experiences, gender and ethnic identity. Data were collected from the participant by conducting semi-structured, in-depth participant interviews, observing the participant in a natural setting, and completing the Leadership Practices Self Inventory. These data were transcribed and coded using Qualms software. Common themes emerged through analysis of interviews, observed situations, and interpretation of data collected. Focusing on the personal experiences of one female superintendent, the five overarching themes which emerged from this phenomenological qualitative study were (a) her socialization, (b) her determined work ethic, (c) her persistence to attain the superintendency, (d) her strong religious beliefs, and (e) her concern for student achievement. The underlying themes, revealed by this research, have implications for women considering the superintendency. The findings of this study indicated how one African-American female overcame barriers, from childhood to adulthood, to achieve the top executive position of a large school district. In her own words, a comprehensive understanding of the road one African-American female traveled to secure the superintendency was told.

"In 1987, Jacqueline Danzberger described school boards as the forgotten players. However, things have changed drastically for school boards over the past few years. No longer are school boards the forgotten players in school governance. Instead, school boards often find themselves in the center of controversies stemming from the intrusion of political partisanship into local governance structures which historically, and for the purposes of sustained democratic educational governance, were intentionally intended to be non-partisan elected boards. However, this is where many school boards find themselves today. The chapters in this volume address several key questions school board members are currently facing as they struggle to protect some of our country's earliest guardrails of democracy; local control of schools. To be sure, school boards are no longer the forgotten players. Implications of this may be wide reaching and therefore deserve room in the current literature on educational governance. Volume II of the Research on the Superintendency series highlights recent research on school boards, local control, governance, and the superintendency. Each chapter is briefly described in this chapter and the chapters are in a particular order that readers may wish to pay attention to as they enjoy the book. The first three chapters deal with local control in both rural and urban settings. The next two chapters are studies focused mainly on school boards and how their roles have shifted over the years followed by a chapter on the relationship between school boards and their superintendents within a regulatory environment and the level of stress it can bring to board members and superintendents. The final five chapters describe recent superintendent research that is closely linked to school governance or school board policies. We ask readers to juxtapose lessons learned in those five chapters to the role of school boards within the context of those chapters"--

The position of public school superintendent is one that is filled with many challenges and opportunities. A more in depth awareness of the leadership characteristics of public school superintendents enhance the understanding of this very complex role in todays society. The purpose of this study was to identify leadership characteristics of school superintendents in todays complex education environment as perceived by school superintendents and school board chairpersons in Virginia. Additionally, this study gathered and evaluated perspectives from practicing superintendents and their board chairpersons to determine similarities and differences between the perceptions of these two groups. The population selected for this study was comprised of all 132 K-12 public school superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia during the 2008-2009 school year. Additionally, all 132 Virginia school board chairpersons were invited to participate in the survey. A total of 101 responses were received from the survey population of Virginia school superintendents. This represents an overall survey return rate of 76.52%. A total of 70 responses were received from the survey population of Virginia school board chairpersons, representing a return rate of 53.03%. The respondents were asked to read 17 statements regarding the activities and characteristics related to the job of superintendent and answer from 1 to 4, strongly disagree to strongly agree. In addition, respondents were asked to rank in order of importance ten superintendent leadership characteristics, with the value of 1 corresponding to the most important characteristic. The perceived ratings were then rank-ordered based upon the composite mean of the ratings of each individual leadership characteristics. Superintendents and school board chairpersons agreed that personal and professional integrity, honesty, and fairness are the most essential leadership characteristics for the public school superintendent. Superintendents and school board chairpersons also agreed that effective communication with board members, division and school staffs, parents, students, and the community is essential in superintendent leadership. Both superintendents and school board chairpersons perceived visionary leader as the most important leadership characteristic, relative to all the characteristics rated. Superintendents indicated that instructional leader was the second most important characteristic, while school board chairpersons perceived this characteristic as the third most important. Superintendents rated effective school board relations as the third most important characteristic, while school board chairpersons ranked this as their fourth most important characteristic. Statistically significant differences in the perceptions of superintendents and school board chairpersons were observed for the following characteristics: professional development experience, politically astute, and team builder. Superintendents perceived professional development experience to be significantly less important than did school board chairpersons. The superintendents perceived politically astute to be significantly more important characteristic than the school board chairpersons. Finally, school board chairpersons considered the characteristic of team builder to be significantly more important than superintendents. ; Ph. D.

Much of the existing literature on urban school reform focuses on how the relatively small number of our nation's largest urban districts are approaching school reform with these objectives in mind. However, does smaller district size have any bearing, direct or indirect, on the nature of superintendent leadership? The authors' exploratory research investigates the interplay between superintendent leadership strategies and behaviors, and district reform initiatives in a sample of relatively well-performing, smaller urban districts in California. The authors conducted interviews with superintendents and members of their leadership teams in four urban districts to examine how district size might influence superintendent leadership strategies, reform initiatives, and personal behaviors. The authors found that the personal leadership behaviors and associated operating processes (strategies and tactics for execution) appeared remarkably distinct from what superintendents do (or are expected to do) in very large urban school districts. The implications of these tentative findings are discussed in the conclusion.

This research study was designed to build grounded theory about the challenges faced by rural superintendents. Participating rural superintendents identified five areas that presented a challenge but that also applied to superintendents in other settings: school law, finance, personnel, government mandates, and district or board policies. Further, these superintendents identified challenges related specifically to the rural setting and to their lack of acculturation to the demands of rural school leadership. Focus group research conducted among rural superintendents in New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee indicated that the challenges of the rural superintendency were distinct enough to warrant some specialized preparation for such service.