Practices to maintain and enhance board-member relationships are described in this handbook. Following the preface, chapter 1 presents a historical overview to describe the problems involved in defining the proper roles for school boards and superintendents. Chapter 2 identifies current board/administrator roles and what they should be for the…

Recently South Dakota initiated a statewide report card system, which publicizes school data such as teacher-student ratios and student scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. A survey of South Dakota superintendents on their opinions about the new system was returned by 178 superintendents (74 percent of total), of whom 57 administered small…

Based on an April 1998 conference, this EdSource report focuses on what several prominent education experts and school district superintendents perceive as the primary challenges and opportunities faced by California's school accountability movement. Gerald Hayward, a policy analyst, believes that any proposed accountability system should be based…

The relationships between improvements to facilities and accurate enrollment counts and an academic plan for the District of Columbia public schools were explored in a hearing that was part of a series on the D.C. public schools. Representative Thomas Davis (Virginia) spoke of the progress being made in improving the D.C. schools and the great…

Findings from a study that examined the perceptions of New York public school superintendents toward specific administrative job applicants with respect to job title and sex and the impact on women's career paths in educational administration are presented in this paper. The first methodological phase, which examined the relationship between…

A major statewide survey was conducted to establish comprehensive, baseline information regarding arts education in the public school districts of Arizona. This report documents the findings and serves as a standard against which to measure future changes as well as a guide or starting point for responsible planning in order to effect intelligent,…

This study examined evaluation processes used by Arkansas school boards to evaluate their superintendents, and compared the data with results from a recent national survey reporting techniques used in the evaluation of superintendents, data about who had input in conducting the evaluation, criteria used in the evaluation process, and traits of an…

In order to identify factors enabling superintendents to maintain their position, this study examines characteristics of superintendents serving in the same Oklahoma rural school districts for 12 years or more, a tenure longer than the national average of 5 years. Twenty-four superintendents were identified and interviewed by telephone. Data…

This paper reports on the leadership qualities of rural and urban women superintendents. Telephone interviews with 51 randomly selected female superintendents in 29 states examined perceived sources of job satisfaction, the benefits accrued on the job, sense of self-fulfillment in the workplace, and personal strengths. The most frequent responses…

Economic forces and educational equity issues have combined to heighten calls for improved education for all students. Systemic reform calls for education to be reconceptualized from the ground up, beginning with the nature of teaching and learning, educational relationships, and school-community relationships. One of the assumptions made by…

This paper summarizes an ethnohistorical study of the way in which a medium-sized suburban school district's implementation of site-based, shared decision making interacted with attitudes and procedures created by earlier district reforms. A second focus is on how the adoption of a new curriculum framework, based on a whole-language philosophy and…

This paper presents findings of a study that: (1) identified the most salient organization, personal, and professional factors contributing to administrator burnout; and (2) determined the relationship among these variables to each of the three dimensions of burnout. Data were obtained from a survey of 1,000 school administrators--169 elementary…

A national stratified random sample of superintendents (N=432) responded to a 42-item questionnaire listing probable causes of students dropping out. They were asked to identify causes that they believe should be given high priority as well as those that had the necessary research foundation from which to develop significant intervention programs.…

The inherent political conflict between the professional decision-maker and citizen participation in those decisions is explored in the perceptions of city managers, planning directors, and school superintendents responding to a national mail poll. From the sample of 750 administrators, there were 406 (54 percent) returns, distributed almost…

This publication provides a general description of the California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS), standards governing the use of its data, descriptions of the data elements and CBEDS reports, guidelines for access to the data, and a data request form. The CBEDS database consists of three principal files: (1) enrollment and staff data for…