Successful Ventura County schools know the best recipe for high achievement: fully credentialed, highly qualified, and motivated teachers; highly involved and well-educated parents; and adequate funding for smaller classes, professional development, and regular and alternative programs and facilities, topped off with excellent leadership. (MLH)

Describes a national study on the dissonance between superintendent roles and school board political configurations and the need for field-based application of knowledge in superintendent in-service education programs. The paper discusses how school superintendents prefer to operate as professional advisors and decision makers. Recommendations for…

Blackwell, Futrell, and Imig (2003), in their article "Burnt Water Paradoxes of Schools of Education," present a dismal picture of the challenges and inconsistencies facing schools, colleges, and departments of education. These criticisms have accelerated over the past few years and have been fueled by the current federal government's…

The focus is on strategies used by 10 urban districts to reduce school dropouts. Thirty-eight strategies for dropout prevention were identified. Although the majority identified dropout prevention strategies, only two districts referred to "recovery programs." If district spokespersons mentioned their CEOs using a systems approach in…

Using statistical data collected during a 30-year period, the article reports on the significant movement of females into all of the line administrative positions in the largest school districts in the country (by student population) since the passage of Title IX with one notable exception, that of superintendent. The position of superintendent…

Superintendents and school boards must work together to improve schools and student academic performance. In an attempt to improve often dismal school system performance, several states passed laws over the past decade changing certification requirements for superintendents, effectively permitting anyone, however trained, to become superintendent…

Mayors and other municipal leaders in cities across the nation are helping expand alternatives for students who struggle in traditional high school settings. Alternatives for high school are new alternative secondary school initiatives that prepare young people to graduate from high school and achieve college and career success through programs…

This booklet proposes four actions that school leaders, particularly school district superintendents, can take to promote simultaneous improvement of educator education and public schools. The proposed actions are that school leaders: (1) make preservice education a true priority; (2) cooperate in establishing partner schools that serve as…

This paper presents findings from a study that determined the conditions that encouraged school administrators to move between and among school districts. Data were derived from a survey of 1,010 Nebraska administrators on the membership list of the Nebraska Council of School Administrators. A total of 812 usable responses (an 80.3 percent…

This paper describes Illinois' program for warning school districts of impending financial troubles and the reactions of superintendents to the state's "early warning" program. In February 192, the State of Illinois issued a list of 111 school districts, out of a total of 946 districts, that were on the Financial Watch list. Of…

Case studies of seven black school superintendents in the 1970s reveal the magnitude and complexity of problems they face. This 1980 book begins with a chapter on urban crisis, examining deprivation and deterioration in the inner cities. The role of the superintendent and the challenges and deficiencies of urban education are discussed. Profiles…

The rural school superintendency is, in many ways, as demanding and difficult as the urban superintendency. Chapter 1 of this book provides a working definition of a rural small school district, an estimation of the number of rural systems in the nation that fit the criteria, and a profile of rural small school superintendents. Chapter 2 discusses…

This report provides a comprehensive view of teacher preparation, program approval, and teacher selection practices in Pennsylvania and other states. The major premise is that, due to changing student and teacher demographics, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to improve the quality of the teaching force as teachers retire and as Pennsylvania raises…

The Collaborative Efforts Action Group of the Urban Superintendents' Network moved from an examination of the roles of schools, businesses, and community agencies in improving the quality of education in America to promoting the creation of comprehensive collaboratives that can strengthen family and community life. This report shares what…

This paper narrates the experiences of a superintendent hired into Montgomery Township School District (New Jersey), an affluent, small school district with a history of labor relations problems. When hired in 1990, the new superintendent was confronted with seven pending grievance cases and the board of education's rejection of the annual school…