Although some board members and superintendents may consider superintendent evaluation as potentially disturbing for their working relationships, such evaluations may become more appealing when considered as part of a broader system of school governance and management. What is needed is a performance appraisal system developed jointly by…

This survey represents the first volume of a three-part report which presents the contract salaries and minimum and maximum wages for 22 professional positions scheduled for 1986-87 according to data from 1,031 responding school systems. In addition to this information, the system-by-system listing considers data such as enrollment, per pupil…

This study represents the second volume of a three-part report which presents the annual salaries actually paid to 22 categories of professional personnel for 1986-87 by 1,031 surveyed school systems. A system-by-system listing relates data such as enrollment; per pupil expenditure; the contract salaries paid to superintendents; the highest,…

Characteristic reform measures that perfect the status quo and maintain educational order have become outdated and irrelevant to our times. Educators are calling for leaders with the ability to sense organizational needs from a holistic approach and with the insight or intuitive feel for what the organization can become. Such activity depends upon…

To obtain rural school superintendents' assessment of research needs, questionnaires were sent in 1986 to 752 superintendents from schools with less than 1,000 K-12 student population. The questionnaires, adapted from the research agenda of the Rural Education Association (REA), consisted of 51 research topics grouped under 9 thematic categories.…

With an area of 110,540 square miles and a population of less than one million people, Nevada experiences educational problems that are not simply rural but remote--vast distances, geographic barriers, lack of services, untrained personnel, inadequate funding, etc. The Nevada Rural School District Alliance was formed in 1983 to improve the quality…

Four papers generated by a broader study of issues management in three suburban Chicago school districts are collected here. "Achieving Routine" focuses on the effective routinization of organizational change, in this case a curriculum decision, through the use of administrative mechanisms and the conceptual linkage of the new to…

This handbook is aimed at improving the effectiveness of school board members. Effectiveness of the individual board member has a direct bearing on the effectiveness of the whole board, superintendent of schools, school district, and policy formation. The major functions of the school board are discussed: (1) selection of the superintendents; (2)…

Evaluating the chief school administrator's performance is one of the most important responsibilities of a board of education. In New Jersey, established guidelines for board evaluations of superintendents range from legal to procedural in the attempt to meet school district goals and objectives and to assess whether the superintendency fulfilled…

Duties of 46 county school superintendents in Oklahoma were analyzed and educational benefits of statutory provisions and additional activities were evaluated. Questionnaires, telephone and personal interviews, and on-site visits provided data. Statutory duties were found to be present in each superintendent's report and to be mostly clear and…

The organization of local government in England underwent significant structural revision during the 1970s, creating centralized authorities focused on objectives and service delivery systems rather than on organizational structures and the separate services delivered. As the most autonomous local agency prior to reorganization, education was the…

Project AWARE (Assisting Women to Advance through Resources and Encouragement), under the auspices of the American Association of School Administrators and the Ford Foundation, conducted a survey in 1981 of the chief state school officers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data were collected on the sex, race, and ethnic background of…

Part 1 of the annual Educational Research Service, Inc. (ERS) National Survey of Salaries and Wages in Public Schools reports data for the 1984-85 school year on salaries scheduled for 23 selected professional positions, including superintendents, associate superintendents, other central office administrators, principals, assistant principals,…

This handbook and the accompanying workbook grew out of a series of workshops on superintendent appraisal designed to find a way to clarify and strengthen the board-superintendent relationship and to enable boards to constructively evaluate superintendent performance. The guidelines are intended to acquaint board members and superintendents with…

The last decade of educational accountability has not ushered in a millennium of professional optimism or achievement. The negative outcomes have been professional defensiveness and apathy toward systemwide efforts to make the schools more businesslike. Positive outcomes are an understanding of the professional self-discipline required in an…