In response to a growing dialogue at the local, state and national levels around the idea of restructuring teacher pay to include performance measures, the American Association of School Administrators surveyed a randomly selected sample of its members to gauge their feedback and interest in pay-for-performance programs. AASA launched this survey…

The following paper is a synopsis of a study which examined career paths to the Texas public school superintendency. The most common pathways to the superintendency were identified and delineated by educational attainment and gender. Five career paths were identified as the major pathways to the superintendent position. The secondary teacher,…

In this article, the authors take a quick comparative look at two superintendents and their districts to better understand how both of them, considered strong leaders, can have very different effects on mean district-level student achievement. Their recent meta-analysis of the effects of district-level leadership on student achievement, summarized…

The role of superintendent of schools has become a hotbed of political focus in recent years. No longer is it sufficient for the designated leader of a school district to be an accomplished educator and respected person. In a climate of high expectations and blame placing, superintendents are expected to be all things to all populations. From…

This booklet describes the business and finance functions of managing public school systems. The role and duties of a school business administrator are discussed and qualifications, educational requirements, and certification requirements are suggested for the position. The organizational structure, operation, and duties of administrators in the…

Periodic reexamination of existing professional development school forms is good practice to ascertain whether goals are being met. Such an assessment was sparked by a request from a superintendent in a 14-year-old professional development school structure at a public college in the Northeast. This assessment revealed that although the…

The purpose of the case study is to describe how one large school district in the United States has expanded their expectations for students based on the perceived need for graduates to compete in an increasingly global job market. The study "summarizes" the processes for establishing districtwide systems to support these expectations. The case…

This is a detailed description of an assessment that can be used in a graduate level of study in the area of public school finance. This has been approved by NCATE as meeting all of the stipulated ELCC standards for which it is designed (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3.). This course of…

In this study, the researchers investigated the perceived relationships of financial and non-financial incentives on teacher recruitment and retention among public school teachers in the State of Texas from the perspective of 98 public school superintendents. Findings revealed that school districts tended to offer teachers' salaries over the state…

This study examines why 51 schools declined an invitation to participate in a state-funded educator incentive initiative, the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program. Using data from an ongoing evaluation of the TEEG program conducted by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) under contract with Texas Education Agency, this…

The surge of high-stakes testing and accountability has been felt in Texas and all across the country. Every state is demanding to some degree or another that administrators and teachers increase their workload, alter their teaching, rearrange the curriculum, adjust professional development, and implement improvement programs in order to raise…

Recounts the training and preparation that went into the successful use of a 14-member screening committee that included 11 citizens with no previous experience in reviewing professional papers. (Author/IRT)

Administrators who have been trained in the sciences may be more effective than those who have been trained in the humanities, according to a review of the literature. This paper asserts that the effectiveness of superintendents is a function both of their specific preparation for administration and of their educational backgrounds. The…

At the turn of the century, there was no canon of expertise in administrative practice because laymen operated most of the schools, and there was no canon of authority in professional educational administration because there was no identifiable body of knowledge unique to administration of schools. As the administrative progressives began to see…