With scant resources but boundless commitment, Charles Johnson, superintendent in a rural Mississippi district, takes pride in stretching school funds. The district has never run a deficit or borrowed to make ends meet. (MLF)

A diagnostic assessment system--based on performance specifications of the American Association of School Administrators' National Executive Development Center concerning instructional leadership for superintendents and assistants--was field tested with over 250 executives and evaluated using 89 executives. Data support continued use of the 42…

Selection of Ontario directors of education is defined by assumptions that directors should be from Ontario and male, and should have followed the "regular" pattern of advancement. Extensive practical experience (as opposed to advanced degrees) and connections to the "old boy" network are helpful. The selection process is…

Dr. John Brock was elected in 1987 for a four-year term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Kentucky. His official duties were altered by the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA). Dr. Brock answers questions that include his role as superintendent, the background of KERA, and his advice to legislators in other states. (MLF)

A case study of an anonymous but real-life district swamped in a conflict that involves a succession of superintendents, an entrenched school board secretary, a teacher who was fired and later elected board president, and several board members recalled. Three school leaders offer their advice. (MLF)

A group of volunteers formed a new school district in California, and the newly formed school board learned to leave management to the superintendent it had hired. (MLF)

Interviews with educators and community members in a very small rural Nebraska school district suggested causes for the district's exceptionally high superintendent turnover rate: low salary and status, lack of challenge, use of the position as a stepping stone, declining economy and population, community transition, and the superintendent's…

Concluding that the Jersey City Public Schools were educationally bankrupt and in total disarray, the New Jersey State Department of Education took over the district in October 1989 and completely reorganized its central office by reassigning, demoting, or terminating 117 administrators. The newly decentralized system features four school clusters…

Summarizes a study that expands the contextual parameters of effective schools research by defining the school district as a macro social system containing individual schools as microsocial systems. Analyzes principals' and superintendents' perceptions of six identified effective schools to determine the significance of the superintendent's role…

Summarizes a study to identify the sources of job satisfaction, job benefits, sources of self-fulfillment, and personal strengths that women bring to the superintendency. Based on 51 interviews with urban and rural women superintendents, results showed that both groups have similar leadership characteristics befitting a new model that values…

Reexamines Callahan's book, "Education and the Cult of Efficiency" (1962), and his vulnerability thesis regarding school superintendents, discussing recommendations it made and highlighting public education in the 1990s. Callahan's recommendations were well-received but not well-heeded, and the vulnerability thesis did not provide the…

Although most principals and superintendents must be awarded annual or multiyear employment contracts by their school districts, such contracts offer little protection from reassignment to a lesser position or even from dismissal. Inadequate remedies for breach of employment contracts subject school administrators to working solely at their…

Discusses the events leading up to the development of the new arts education program for the Sarasota Country School District in Florida. Addresses the work of the Community/Schools Partnership for the Arts, its role in developing the arts program, and the interactions between the community and the school district. (CMK)

Addresses the Sarasota County school district's decision to eliminate the arts programs in the elementary and middle schools. Discusses the efforts by the school district in rescuing the arts in the Sarasota schools and the superintendent's idea for creating the Community/Schools Partnership for the Arts that is working for world-class arts…

A survey of superintendents from seven New Jersey counties revealed that most districts provided little training for substitutes or teachers using them, despite employing an average of 5,320 subs weekly. Teachers, substitutes, and students provided suggestions for improvement. Substitutes prefer schools with strong support systems. (MLH)