To establish good working relationships with their school boards, superintendents should (1) be willing to be vulnerable, (2) be open and accurate, (3) be consistently civil, (4) seek compromise, (5) avoid complacency, and (6) remember that the relationship with each individual board member is unique. (PGD)

It is the superintendent's responsibility to design, develop, and implement an administrator performance appraisal system that is educationally sound, clear, and precise, but uncomplicated; effective in identifying productive performance; and legal, fair, and procedurally reliable. Examples and eight references are provided. (MLF)

Using 56 school districts that experienced enrollment declines, this study describes the variables in superintendent succession amidst declining enrollments and locates the strongest predictors of succession. (JW)

Focuses on the critical role of the superintendent and of district level policies in creating preconditions for local school improvement. Describes the dilemma of school leaders who must make important policy decisions in the face of time pressures and political demands. (JOW)

Roles, perspectives, and skills of superintendents and their fit to the Organizational Elements Model (OEM) are examined by defining the elements in the model and providing examples of applications, analyzing superintendents' roles in the planning process, and discussing a method of determining the roles of superintendents in different situations.…

Assessed coworkers' perceptions of public school superintendents' behavior related to social style (assertiveness, responsiveness, versatility) and interpersonal communication competence (empathy, social anxiety, listening, self-disclosure, flexibility). Found that superintendents with highly responsive styles were perceived as more competent than…

The "harmony model" of school administration is discussed and critiqued. (MM)

Extensive interviews with school personnel of alternative programs reveal that it is in the process of defining their essence with regard to decision-making, admissions, policies, responsibility, freedom, calendars, and programs vs. school identity that planning problems arise. (A related document is EA 507 273.) (Author/MLF)

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the actions taken on new charter school petitions or proposals. This report offers a summary of charter school activity in the 426 Wisconsin school districts during the 2002-2003 school year. The data is based upon an electronic survey administered by the Wisconsin Department of Public…

This comprehensive reader features 24 chapters in 5 primary areas of educational research. Part One, "Leadership, Management, and Organizational Behavior," demonstrates that leadership has a strong conceptual basis that is basic in all human situations. It contains 6 articles: "The Nature of Leadership" (J. Gardner); "Give…

This paper reports on the current thinking about the position of principal and superintendent in America's schools. The positions of school principal and district superintendent have been undergoing changes in definition and scope over the last century and a half. As America undergoes significant societal transformation, the definition of these…

This report focuses on school superintendents--those currently in the position and those in the pipeline. The report reaffirms the importance of the superintendency, raises concerns about the lack of national data collection on school superintendents, and concludes that Americans need more demographic information about, and increased understanding…

In 1998, the Study Circles Resource Center, Arkansas Friends for Better Schools, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, and Oklahoma League of Women Voters involved 900 people in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the Calling the Roll: Study Circles for Better Schools program to address educational problems and link the community and schools. Study…

The position of caretaker of a school is a many-sided and an important one, and the matter of his selection, supervision, and training have hardly been given the attention they deserve. There have been, in recent years, some valuable local studies in this field, but no survey of national scope has been attempted since 1922. The importance of the…

Various names, such as teacher's home, manse, teacherage, attic apartment, "Lean-to" and dominage are applied to the district--owned buildings or to rooms in the schoolhouse that provide living quarters for teachers. There various titles convey no differences in meaning. All serve the same general purpose, to describe a comfortable…