The evaluation of a superintendent is often a stressful, unpleasant experience for both the superintendent and the members of the school board. Typical board trustees have little experience in evaluating CEOs. Worse yet, they are hamstrung by the limitations inherent to their roles. They lack the advantage of a day-to-day working relationship with…

Background: Superintendents' perceptions regarding the effect of health insurance status on academics, the role schools should play in the process of obtaining health insurance, and the benefits/barriers to assisting students in enrolling in health insurance were surveyed. Superintendents' basic knowledge of health insurance, the link between…

Colleges of education have come to rely heavily on superintendents to teach graduate-level classes in educational administration. While no national organization tracks this phenomenon, anecdotal evidence points to widespread and perhaps growing involvement in the adjunct ranks. While the majority reported being assigned to teach semester-long…

"Success in the Superintendency" will help new and aspiring superintendents gain meaningful, practical information from award winning, experienced superintendents. The book's ten chapters cover topics identifiable to every superintendent--no matter how many years experience he or she has on the job. The author and editor of the book, Kay T.…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the length of tenure of a superintendent and academic achievement as defined by the percentage of students who scored "Proficient" or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment. To put this relationship into context, five other predictive…

Purpose: This research study sought to determine the leadership practices of area superintendents in selected South Florida public school district areas based on principals' perceptions and assess school climate impact using descriptive and inferential approaches. Methodology: The "Leadership Practices Inventory" ("LPI") 360…

This study was designed to investigate school superintendent and school board member perceptions of the relative importance of the Texas State Board of Educator Certification competencies required to be a successful leader of a Texas public school system. School districts within seven of the Regional Education Service Centers in Texas were…

Serving as superintendent, going into his 24th year, the author has completed hundreds of applications and interviewed for nearly a hundred superintendencies. He has accepted seven superintendencies and, in more than 20 instances, have declined offers or withdrawn from consideration after being interviewed. This cumulative experience has produced…

Board of education members come and go, but the community remains. Wise candidates for a superintendent position, as well as the dedicated board members involved in fulfilling this important duty, understand this and therefore want the public to be part of the superintendent search process. As a search consultant to school boards for 20 years, the…

In his book "The Speed of Trust," Stephen Covey identifies trust as the one thing that, if missing, will "destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love." When the Creative-Moniker…

At a time when teacher quality has emerged as a key factor in student learning, a statistical technique that determines the "value added" that teachers bring to student achievement is getting new scrutiny. Value-added measures compare students' growth in achievement to their expected growth, based on prior achievement and demographic…

The purpose of this article is to report the viability, as expressed by superintendents, of alternative routes to principal licensure as a solution to the principal shortage, regardless of whether it is a quantitative or qualitative shortage. The researcher's interest is in assessing and explaining the variation in superintendents' willingness to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate differences and/or similarities between women's and men's career mobility toward the superintendency in terms of career pathways and movement patterns, with specific attention to women's career pathways as they correspond with their aspiration to the superintendency. Design/methodology/approach:…

How is it that smart administrators who want to do a good job often find themselves in situations that degenerate into confrontation and, ultimately, termination? In this article, the author discusses why in terms of a model of leadership--which he refers to it as WICS, an acronym for wisdom, intelligence and creativity synthesized. He describes…

Post-secondary experiences for students still in high school have been promoted as a means to increase academic rigor and create a better-trained workforce. Yet little is known regarding supports needed to significantly increase such options. This study obtained input from 411 stakeholders in one Midwestern state, including 201 district…