The members of the Large Countywide and Suburban District Consortium--a group of large, highly diverse, and successful districts across the country--have made great strides in achieving college and career readiness for all students. While they are succeeding, the consortium proposes that more could be done to accomplish their objectives through…

This conceptual paper integrates the literature from several research bases: teacher leadership, the superintendency, and university preparation of superintendents. Currently little information exists in the literature relative to the involvement of the superintendent in promoting teacher leadership programs. This paper concludes with suggestions…

When a highly qualified candidate learns the search will be conducted confidentially, a positive response is almost certain, in the author's experience running superintendent searches since 1988. Just as likely, the prospective candidate responds negatively to being told the search process will not be confidential. Confidentiality is the item of…

Along with radically shifting priorities and practices to put better learning first, recent experiences and new research underscore a second, closely related imperative for districts--that principals get the high-quality training they need to be successful as frontline leaders of instructional change throughout their schools. In fact, no…

Over the years women have played crucial roles in societal leadership. Within the past decade more women have emerged in taking positions of leadership in many areas concerning U.S. education in particularly the highest public position in education, Superintendent. Obtaining, sustaining, and maintaining high positions of power for any career woman…

The Massachusetts story is about persistence. Instead of jumping from one fad to the next, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS) developed a comprehensive and focused plan and stuck to it for several years. It is clearly a story about people--the trust and connections that developed among networks of superintendents that…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of New York's Children First Networks (CFNs); to examine what is known about the CFNs thus far, drawing on new empirical research, as well as document review and analysis of secondary sources. Design/methodology/approach: Organizational learning theory guided this…

School district leadership matters, as evidenced by a meta-analysis of 27 reports and 1,210 districts conducted by Waters and Marzano (2006) which highlights a statistically significant correlation between district leadership and student achievement. Because this relationship is significant, it is important for school districts to have effective…

The superintendency is the most male-dominated position in education (Alston, 2000; Brunner, 2000). Although statistical data reveal the disproportion between males and women in superintendent positions, the data also report a greater discrepancy in the number of African American women who have obtained superintendent positions. This qualitative…

Nationally approximately 40 percent of third grade students do not read at grade level. Principals play a critical role in providing leadership in the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) to ensure that students not making adequate yearly progress receive targeted instruction to address their deficiencies. The purpose of this study is…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between superintendent leadership and the operational processes of school improvement. School district superintendents (N = 226) from six southeastern states were surveyed concerning their leadership authenticity and school improvement practices. Descriptive statistics, analyzes of…

The United States has experienced tremendous growth in the development of coaching initiatives including professional training programs, state endorsements and resources for coaches. These developments bring attention to the potential for coaching to improve education. They also raise the question of how best to facilitate implementation in local…

The school district is the fundamental administrative unit of schooling in the United States and the superintendent the lead official. The nature and the challenges of this position, however, vary across the landscape. Because most superintendents lead rural districts, the challenges facing those districts are the ones that typically bedevil the…

In 2009-2010, California made substantial education budget cuts at the same time that it removed its spending requirements from $4.5 billion of state money. This gave districts the flexibility to use the funds in any manner approved by the local school board. Researchers found that most of the formerly earmarked money was moved into general funds…

Framed in the context of increased media attention focused on a shortage of qualified candidates for the superintendency of public school districts, this study examines the thought process of educational leaders who are in a position to pursue the superintendency. A review of the literature explored the increasing challenges of the position…