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Essential elements of superintendent training and preparation programs as indicated by practicing superintendents in the state of California

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Essential elements of superintendent training and preparation programs as indicated by practicing superintendents in the state of California

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ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SUPERINTENDENT TRAINING AND
PREPARATION PROGRAMS AS INDICATED BY PRACTICING
SUPERINTENDENTS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
by
Brian J. Thurman
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements of the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2001
Copyright 2001 Brian J. Thurman
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U M i Number 3054815
Copyright 2001 by
Thurman, Brian John
All rights reserved.
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
School of Education
Los Angeles. California 90089-0031
This dissertation, written by
_______Brian J. Thurman____________________
under the direction o f hd&JDissertatian Committee, and
approved by ad members o f the Committee, has been
presented to and accepted by the Faculty o f the School
o f Education in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor
the degree of
D o c t o r o f Ed u c a tio n
Aoril 25. 2001
Dissertation Committee
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Brian J. Thurman
ABSTRACT
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SUPERINTENDENT TRAINING AND
PREPARATION PROGRAMS AS INDICATED BY PRACTICING
SUPERINTENDENTS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Purpose. The primary purpose of this investigation was to obtain evidence from a
sample of 199 public school superintendents in California based on their perceptions of
those features of training and preparation that had been perceived as most or least
valuable in contributing to their job performance in the superintendency. Qualitative
efforts were made to identify underlying themes or patterns of responses to open-ended
questions in the survey form that pertained to their training and preparation prior to the
superintendency.
Methodology. This study focused on characteristics of superintendent training
and preparation programs of superintendents in the state of California. Descriptive in
nature, this study employed a mailed survey form that included demographic, structured-
answer, and open-ended answer sections Superintendents were asked to respond to a
mailed survey form regarding details about their training and preparation for the
superintendency. Once the survey instrument was finalized through a field test, it was
mailed to all superintendents across California with district enrollments between 2,S00
and 15,000 students. Although 225 survey forms of the 320 mailed were returned, the
responses to only 199 survey forms could be analyzed. Statistical analyses o f the data
were primarily descriptive in terms of frequencies and percentages of responses assigned
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to the alternatives of item statements. The levels of association were evaluated by chi
square tests. Responses to the qualitatively oriented items were categorized and
evaluated for common themes.
Conclusions. (1) Superintendents find that their training in the area of board
relationships has proven to be the most valuable. (2) Superintendents perceive that their
experiences within the educational workplace have been the most significant contributor
to their overall job performance. (3) Superintendents urge that mentoring programs be
initiated as a phase of training. (4) Superintendents perceive that training involving board
relationships and finance need to be updated in a hands-on approach. (S) University
coursework is seen as having the least value in training and preparing superintendents.
(6) Superintendents identify as the most challenging activity the experience of building
school board relations.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This dissertation and the completion of my doctoral studies has been made
possible by the guidance, cooperation and assistance of many individuals.
To my dissertation committee for their significant support throughout the
entire doctoral program. To Dr. William Michael, the chair of my dissertation
committee, for countless hours of reading and rereading drafts of this dissertation and
for providing his astounding knowledge of statistical procedures in assisting me to
interpret survey results. To Dr. Stuart Gothold, dissertation committee member and
Los Angeles Urban Cohort II advisor, for his guidance throughout not only my entire
experience at USC but also professionally in my career as he assisted me in preparing
for my first principalship and the challenges that have come with this position. To Dr.
Lawrence Picus, dissertation committee member and finance professor who helped me
understand all the budget numbers associated with my first principalship and also
afforded me time with my wife when we had our first child towards the end of the
summer finance course. And last but not least to Mary Orduho, Administrative
Secretary, for the USC Rossier School of Education division of Policy and Analysis,
for her constant willingness to answer all my questions, her assistance with
registration challenges and her cheerful, positive attitude throughout my last four years
at USC
To the superintendent and cabinet members of Ontario-Montdair school
district, past and present. To Dr. Frank Cosca, former Superintendent and Dr. Patrick
King former deputy superintendent, for their support of my ambition to complete a
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doctoral program and for recommending the University of Southern California. To
Dr. Sharon McGehee, superintendent, for all her support both in completing a doctoral
degree and throughout my professional career as assistant principal and principal. To
the superintendent’s cabinet, Jim Kidwell, deputy superintendent, Dr. Tom Gamella,
assistant superintendent, Jim Zajicek, assistant superintendent and Dr. Dottie Leveque,
assistant superintendent, for their unending support and encouragement throughout the
dissertation process and especially for their input on the pilot test of the instrument for
this dissertation.
To my closest friends and extended family who have understood my
commitment to completing this degree, who have been understanding of the time I
could not spend with them, and who have been so encouraging of my endeavors to
complete my doctorate. To the members of Urban Cohort II at USC, especially Dr.
Douglas Sears, Thomas Brown, Joel Carter, and Jay and Cecilia Camerino, whose
friendship and collegiality have motivated me throughout my doctoral studies.
To my mom and dad John and Charlene Thurman, who consistently model a
life of honesty, integrity and perseverance. Their belief in God has shown me the
value of pursuing truth throughout our lives. It is because of their dedication and hard
work that I am who I am today.
Finally, to my wonderful wife and best friend, Amanda, for her untiring
patience, encouragement and sacrifice throughout our journey over the last four years.
Her confidence in me sustained me throughout the doctoral program especially in the
final years. To my son, Jacob Charles, who was bom in the middle of the program, for
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trying to understand when I had to stop wrestling with him in order to work on this
project.
Lastly, to my lord and savior Jesus Christ who provides for us the ultimate
training and preparation manual in the scriptures. The servant leadership style we see
in the life of Jesus is one to be emulated by all.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................ ii
LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................... vii
Chapter
I THE PROBLEM...................................................................................... 1
Introduction
Background of the Problem
Statement of the Problem (Area of Concern)
Purposes of the Study
Importance of the Study
Research Questions
Assumptions
Delimitations
Limitations
Organization of the Remainder of the Dissertation
0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE............................................... 14
The Superintendent in a Leadership Role
Need for Change in the Superintendency
Training and Preparation Programs for the Superintendent
Summary of Literature
in METHODOLOGY................................................................................. 35
Sample
Instrumentation
Data Collection
Data Analysis
IV ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS.............................. 40
Analysis of Data
Discussion and Interpretation of Findings
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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)
Chapter Page
V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS,
AND REFLECTIONS.............................................................................50
Summary
Conclusions
Recommendations
Reflections
REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 61
APPENDIX............................................................................................................. 66
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Percentages of Superintendents Giving Responses
of Either Very Valuable or Extremely Valuable to
Each of 40 Item Statements Identifying Activities,
Characteristics, or Issues Addressed in Their
Preparation and Training for the Superintendency........................ 41
2. Percentage of Superintendents Providing Responses
of Either Very Valuable or Extremely Valuable for
Each of Four Preparatory Activities in the Training
Received by Superintendents in Six Domains.........................................44
3. Frequency of Categorized Responses
to Three Open-Ended Questions from
Part HI of the Survey Form...................................................................... 47
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CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
Reform and educational improvement have become more than just the
watchword for education in the last several years. The uniform state testing guidelines
were just the beginning of demands for accountability which have set the education
system spinning in every direction: standardized achievement tests, Class Size
Reduction, Propostion 227, Program Improvement for Title I schools, and more
recently Senate and Assembly Bills 1 and 2 (Academic Performance Index, Immediate
Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program) have increased the stakes
significantly.
Central to all these ‘remedies’ is a systematic demand for routines and
procedures which Dyer and Dyer (1965) would classify as characteristic approaches
used by custodial organizations to institute change. Collectively, such reform
measures represent techniques and bureaucratic structures designed to perfect the
status quo and to maintain an educational order which is outdated and irrelevant to
current times.
Such measures, as they stand, will not bring reform. Instead, reform must
evolve from a “holistic consideration of the organization as part of a dynamic
environment” (Norris, 1985, p. 15). Actualizing such reform requires a new style of
leadership. Dyer and Dyer (1965) suggested that leadership reflects a society’s
expectations. Although the traditional maintenance style administrator may have been
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an analytical or technical genius in the past, such a style is incompatible with an
evolving age of accountability, questioning, and rapid change. Today’s leaders must
be 'conceptualizes’ who can direct the organization toward new pathways of change.
As Paulson (1982) stated, "In times of strategic change, the organization must be able
to look to him (the leader) as the ‘Moses’ leading it through the wilderness toward a
vision that is clear only to a few” (p. 27).
The actualization of purpose through the leadership process requires that the
leader possess the ability to sense organizational needs from a holistic approach and
have insightfulness or an intuitive feeling for what the organization can become.
According to Piele and Smith (1989), leadership is partly inborn but mostly learned. It
is important for school superintendents to identify their individual personal leadership
strengths and weaknesses and to work to improve the characteristics of both.
Background of the Problem
America is emerging from a decade that has been hailed nationally as one of
educational reform. Many of these reforms include dollars from state and federal
levels. Several reform efforts or requirements, however, do not include
implementation funds. Regardless of the reform efforts in general, education as a
whole is not taking the nation where it needs to go. The American economy is failing
to grow as it has in the past. Individuals are dividing a smaller pie and fighting harder
for their fair share.
Since 1970, the real wages of the average high school graduate - the non
college educated average American - have dropped 28%. The real wages of non-high
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school graduates have declined 42% since 1970. The one area in the country in which
society is failing the most is preparing children for jobs in the new emerging global
economy (Roosevelt, 1991).
The nation is now losing jobs to higher wage, higher skilled workforces. If
one asks to whom America has been losing the greatest number of jobs, most would
respond to low-skilled, low wage countries. This situation is no longer true. When
Motorola, for example, locates a $600 million semi-conductor chip manufacturing
plant in Japan and pays the workers higher wages than it would in America, it is
paying more for better trained workers. The company does not need to retrain or to re
educate these employees (Roosevelt, 1991).
American companies increased their investments abroad by an astounding 17%
in 1990, while augmenting their American investments by slightly more than 6%
(Struther, 1991). The largest employer in Malaysia is General Electric. The largest
exporter of computers from Japan is IBM. One of the most socially responsible
businessmen in Massachusetts, Arnold Hiatt, CEO of Stride Rite, has increasingly
invested overseas to employ better trained workers. Economic sluggishness has much
to do with the fact that successful corporations look to places other than the United
States to hire better quality workers.
Federal funding to train and to retrain workers plummeted by more than S0%
during the 1980s, specifically from $13.2 billion to $S.6 billion. Industry, on the other
hand has been spending $30 billion a year on the formal training of employees
(Struther, 1991). When a business reviews its hiring choices, it finds that the available
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workers do not meet its needs. These circumstances have enabled the business
community to gain a far greater appreciation for the value of education than perhaps
any other sector of American society.
During the 1980s, only the top 30% of Americans emerged better situated
financially than they were at the beginning of the decade and only the top 1% emerged
significantly better. The average annual family income of the latter group in the
population grew so significantly that in 1990 it rose to $875,200.00 nationally. The
gap between those with and without a high school education, and between those with
and without a college education, has increased dramatically. In 1980, college
graduates earned twice as much as high school graduates; in 1990, they earned four
times as much (Hetrick, 1993). Education is becoming the social program that matters
most. Education is the national defense for the new millennium.
There are no blanket reform efforts that work successfully for every
educational organization. Successful reform efforts start with restructuring activities
throughout an organization. A joint venture of the Office of Community Education of
the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Massachusetts Association of
School Superintendents (MASS) was created to help public school superintendents to
become more effective leaders in promoting educational restructuring and school-
based management in their schools. The School-Based Improvement Project (SBID)
was composed of a colloquium series, support groups, peer coaching programs, and
onsite leadership laboratories. According to Susan Freedman, Director, Office of
Community Education, Massachusetts Department of Education, the most successful
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restructuring practices, which are modeled at the top of the organization, require
strong leadership from superintendents (Massachusetts Association of School
Superintendents, 1991).
The underlying focus of the colloquia series including speakers/trainers such as
Peter Senge and Thomas J. Sergiovanni, was that successful restructuring through
school-based management requires more, not less, leadership from superintendents
and that this leadership calls for new skills, attitudes, and behaviors from
superintendents.
The American public school superintendency has moved through three distinct
phases of growth and development during the past 100 years. It is on the brink of a
fourth phase that has just begun. Traditionally, overly changed and changing
circumstances, the district superintendent has been held ultimately responsible for the
success of the public schools. Even though teachers, principals, and school board
members greatly outnumber superintendents, the bottom line responsibility for
influencing and managing the quality of education rests on superintendents’ shoulders
(Carter, Glass & Hord, 1993).
As society enters a new century, it is apparent that the profession of the school
superintendency is more important than it has ever been. Today’s superintendents
must be well grounded from solid financial management knowledge, to child growth
and development expertise, not to mention the need to possess political acuity, skills in
organizational and group behavior, and a background utilizing effective staff
development and student personnel practices. Certainly, the superintendent must be
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knowledgeable in matters pertaining to instructional options, application of the most
promising research, assessment, and both evaluation and allocation of human,
financial, and material resources. Most superintendents, however, find that this
knowledge is insufficient, given the existing climate in American education (Carter &
Cunningham, 1997). Before the superintendent is able to apply any of this knowledge,
he or she must first learn to survive in a very difficult, highly politicized, conflictive
job. The success and prosperity of American education may well depend as much on
the survival of the superintendent as it does on his or her ability to be an effective
educational leader.
Recently, the job demands have become so intense that the average tenure of
superintendents has reached an all-time low. Reports examining the superintendency
suggest that the average tenure ranges between two and one-half years and six years,
depending on district size (Norton, 1996). A front page article in the New York Times
on December 26, 1990, characterized the condition of the superintendency:
School superintendents around the country have been quitting in droves
or have been dismissed or have retired early, often because they have
failed to deliver the quick educational fixes demanded of them. More
than IS major cities are now scrambling to find school chiefs, nearly
three times the usual number in any given year, experts say. And the
searches for superintendents are getting harder. Cities are finding
fewer candidates willing to apply for these jobs, despite salaries that in
many cases top $100,000 a year. (Daley, 1990, p. 131)
This current study has provided recent research findings in the field of
superintendent training and preparation. Specifically, this study explored which
characteristics practicing superintendents indicated were the most critical in training
and preparation programs. Superintendents across the state of California were mailed
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a survey form with demographic, stmctured-answer, and open-ended questions.
Responses were used to determine which aspects of superintendent training and
preparation have been most and least valuable and which areas of training programs
were deemed to be of low priority by those practicing in the field.
Statement of the Problem (Area of Concern)
In today’s era of educational accountability more and more weight is being put
on the shoulders of the superintendent to be the instructional leader, community
builder, financial genius, and personnel problem solver. The few success stories about
which one hears are almost always related to the competency level of the
superintendent and to the effect his or her leadership has had on the outcomes of
students in one way or another (Tallerico, 2000). In order to maintain this positive
effect on student outcomes, research has been revealing that school districts must
parallel the society as society adapts to incredibly rapid changes in order to meet the
challenging needs of children in America. As the chief executive officer of the school
district, the superintendent must model the continuous improvement ideology
throughout his or her leadership from within the district. Are superintendents trained
or prepared to take on today’s challenges in school districts? Are programs that
trained superintendents 20 years ago still effective at providing the skills
superintendents need in order to manage successfully the school districts of today? It
is time to reevaluate what superintendents receive through training and preparation
programs in order to take on incredible responsibilities. Good superintendents are
leaving the profession (Mulligan, 19%). In order to meet the challenging demands of
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American society in the midst of this information age, superintendents must have the
training and preparation that will allow them to address successfully every aspect of
the school district organization.
Purposes of the Study
For a sample of 199 public school superintendents in California who responded
to items in a survey form, the major purpose of this investigation was to obtain
evidence based on their perceptions of those features of their training and preparation
that had been perceived as most or least valuable in contributing to their job
performance in the superintendency. A secondary purpose was to identify possible
statistically significant relationships of each of four demographic variables to the level
of perceived value of selected features of their training or preparatory experience prior
to employment as a superintendent. An additional effort was made to develop to the
extent possible underlying themes or patterns of responses to open-ended questions in
the survey form that pertain to their preparatory experiences.
Importance of the Study
It is a necessary precondition that, for an organization to lead effectively, it
must have a pool of potential leaders upon whom to draw. Beyond this requirement,
the organization must fit the most suitable leaders into its system to manage its
evolving climate, to meet present needs, and to give direction to vision-oriented
futures. An effective executive, therefore, must be able to conceptualize the direction
in which the organization is going and must be able to lead and to direct large groups
of employees harmoniously toward the realization of shared goals (Thody, 1997). A
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similar logic applies to leading and guiding schools, students, parents, and community
members in moving them toward the achievement of selected organizational and
educational goals. How well can today’s superintendents perform this vital role? To
what extent have they been trained to perform this vital role? Research is telling the
community that superintendents are leaving the superintendency at increasing rates
and that the position is calling for a new phase of the superintendency (Carter, Glass &
Hord, 1993). Aspiring superintendents must be able to receive the training and
preparation throughout their career that will enable them to take on this increasingly
difficult position.
This study has helped identify strengths and weaknesses of superintendents’
training and preparation programs. This study presents those areas of training and
preparation for superintendents deemed valuable and those areas of their training and
preparation deemed minimally valuable.
Research Questions
Answers to the first three of the five research questions to follow were based
on numerical data provided by the responses to items in a survey form (Appendix A)
and those answers to the fourth and fifth research questions were derived from an
analysis of the patterns and underlying themes associated with responses to four open-
ended questions in the same survey form. Within the context of the purposes of this
study, the following research questions were posed:
1. Among a list of 40 activities or characteristics associated with the training
of 199 California public school superintendents, which ones did at least 75% of the
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sample of superintendents indicate to be either very valuable or extremely valuable or
at least 25% to be minimally valuable?
2. Within each of six broad domains of personal characteristics encountered in
the superintendency (General Education, Instructional Leadership, Administrative
Leadership, Human Relations, Personal Capabilities, or Multicultural Perspectives),
for which of each of the following four categories did at least 75% of the sample of
superintendents indicate to be either very valuable or extremely valuable or at least
25% to be minimally valuable - namely, university programs, on-the-job experiences
within education, professional organizations, or on-the-job experiences within the
private sector?
3. Which ones of four demographic variables (length o f experience as a
superintendent, education level, gender, or size of school district) revealed a
statistically significant association with each of several of the 40 characteristics
considered in the first research question?
4. Relative to the responses of the sample of superintendents to three open-
ended questions regarding their reaction to prior training and preparation for the
superintendency, what were identifiable themes underlying their perceptions
concerning (a) the most valuable feature in terms of its maximum effectiveness in their
practice as superintendents, (b) the type of training or preparation that would have
helped them to be better prepared for the superintendency, and (c) which part of their
training or preparation was considered to be of least value?
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5. What implications might be formulated for the training and preparation of
superintendents in relation to the three most frequently cited challenging activities
they have encountered in their superintendency?
With respect to the first two research questions, a brief rationale should
probably be presented concerning the selection of the two criteria of 75% and 25% of
the responses being associated respectively with the verbally stated scale points of (a)
very valuable or extremely valuable (the 75% criterion) or (b) minimally valuable (the
25% criterion). An effort was being made to identify those activities in the training
and preparatory programs that the superintendents probably considered to be most
effective or least effective to meeting the current demands of their job. In any rating
scale in which there is a continuum from low to high in terms of the value or
importance of an activity there is likely to be the tendency for the respondents to select
alternatives that would be considered socially desirable or positive by the researcher or
general community. In contrast, those response alternatives at the lower end of the
value or importance scale would be expected to receive smaller percentages of
responses. To correct for this possible response set it was thought that a 75% criterion
corresponding to the very valuable or extremely valuable alternatives would be a
reasonable way of identifying those activities associated with the hem statements that
were perceived as probably being effective components contributing to job
performance. The criterion of 25% associated with minimally valuable would suggest
that in overcoming a positive response set a relatively high percentage of 25 might
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serve to identify those activities that were perceived to be really lacking in
contributing to the effectiveness of job performance.
Assumptions
Within this study, the following assumptions were present:
1. Sampling procedures were appropriately representative for the subject of
the study.
2. Instrumentation yielded valid and reliable data.
3. Surveys and self-reports were done honestly and as accurately as possible.
4. Certain characteristics of people can be altered with conscious effort and
with improved training and preparation programs.
Delimitations
The following delimitations served to narrow the focus of this study:
1. Participants were delimited to full time superintendents in California from
all school districts reporting enrollments between 2,S00 and 15,000 students.
2. This study was delimited to superintendents’ perceptions, not those of
other stakeholders within each school district.
Limitations
The following limitations were noted:
1. Participants for this study were selected from a sample of superintendents
within California. Findings may not be generalizable throughout the country.
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2. Findings might only be accurately generalized amongst other
Superintendents with similar characteristics relative to background, gender, size of
district, and education level.
3. Data collection methods were subjective. Inconsistencies exist whenever
self-reporting is being used.
4. The possibility exists that superintendents might have misinterpreted some
of the information on the survey.
5. Superintendents may have had different perceptions of training
characteristics listed in item 2 of part II of the survey form.
Organization of the Remainder of the Dissertation
Chapter II presents a review of relevant research literature concerning (a)
superintendent leadership, (b) need for change, and (c) superintendent training and
preparation programs. Chapter m describes the methods and procedures of this study
with particular emphasis upon the sample, instrumentation, and data collection and
analysis. Chapter IV sets forth the findings of the study within the framework of each
of the five research questions posed in Chapter I. The statistical outcomes are also
discussed and interpreted. Chapter V provides a summary of this investigation along
with conclusions and recommendations.
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CHAPTER n
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents a review of selected literature organized in terms of three
broad areas: (a) the superintendent in a leadership role, (b) need for change in the
superintendency, and (c) training and preparation programs for the superintendency.
The Superintendent in a Leadership Role
Historical Anticedents
Local school administration first began in the cities of the United States. The
first cities to establish the office of the Superintendent of Schools were Buffalo, New
York and Louisville, Kentucky in the year 1837. Other cities soon followed and local
school administration spread throughout the country (Yukl, 1994). The school boards
that hired superintendents during the nineteenth century (especially in cities) were
often not sure what the job should entail. In the years before 1890, many
superintendents shifted back and forth from educational administration to other
occupations such as the ministry, law, business, or politics (Glass, 1992).
During this particular time, schools were four-tiered structures consisting of
student, teacher, principal, and superintendent. The duties of superintendents usually
depended on the expectations of the local school boards and on the motivation and
personality of the school officials. Superintendents compared their managerial duties
with those of supervisors of factories, but the analogies were nothing more than
superficial. The conceptions and ideas of educational leadership were confusing, as
the superintendent was not in an occupation with a clear-cut role. However, according
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to research at the time, “the Superintendent, under his leadership hand, was to be
conducted into the great Union Station of this Imperial Nation” (Truskie, 1992,
p. 261). The superintendent’s word, alone, was to be law. He was not to be compared
to managers of mills and factories. He was to have a direct influence on the “moral
well-being of the universe” (Truskie, 1992, p. 261).
The superintendent of the nineteenth century had to deal with corrupt school
boards and different cultures of people who resented forced change. Towards the end
of the nineteenth century, the character and role of the superintendent changed to
include the language of business during the twentieth century to justify the term
educational leadership (Black & English, 1986). Arising from the historical
background as the foundation for the development of this high-profile position came
the birth of the administrative leadership style that was required to run the education
profession in an efficient and organized manner for the well-being of the public in
general.
Components of Leadership for
the Superintendent
Experienced educators have agreed that effective schools are those in which
strong leadership is evident, and administrators are increasingly viewed as the key
leaders of educational improvement. Almost without exception, boards of education
profess a desire to hire the most highly qualified and best available candidates to lead
their system (Sendor, 1981). Mines (1980) reinforced this philosophy in the following
statement:
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There is no more significant economic investment than the one a
company [school district] makes in its executives. The success of a
company [school district] depends in large part on the people who lead
it. (p. 29)
In this search-for-excellence era, educators are more than ever aware of how the
quality and style of the chief executive officer puts an imprint on the whole
organization and how important the morale of an organization can be to its success.
Standards of excellence have been set at the top (Korn, 1983).
In a study done by Gerla (1987), 40 district boards of education were asked to
identify what they looked for in hiring a superintendent. The top ten responses were
as follows, (a) successful experience, (b) leadership, (c) community involvement, (d)
public relations skills, (e) financial understanding, (f) effective communicator, (g)
acceptance of responsibility, (h) understanding of the curriculum, (i) generation of
ideas, and (j) role as a team builder.
The holistic approach and intuitive feeling for leadership and for the direction
of an organization have been extensively studied. Greenleaf (1977) defined such an
ability as the mark of leadership, and Katz (1974) considered it the most important of
all leadership skills at the top level of administration. Elmore (Massachusetts
Association of School Superintendents, 1991) emphasized this philosophical
orientation in the following statement:
Leaders need to relinquish preconceived definitions of roles, rules,
boundaries, and job descriptions. They need to proceed by intuition
and hunches. Take chances: You only find oil when you drill wells.
If you do not strike oil, cut your losses, try again and keep going, (p. 26)
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This statement affords significant implications to the roles of leadership
throughout any organization. According to Katz (1974), the important skill of
conceptualization becomes most crucial as one ascends in leadership rank. The chief
executive is the focal point and the determiner of change in organizations. As the
chief executive officer of the local school association, the school superintendent must
execute this role. It is especially crucial that the superintendent help to clarify
purpose.
According to Weick (1982), educational systems lack a “consensus on goals
and the means to attain those goals” as well as an “unpredictability of problems and of
resources to those problems” (p. 673). This situation makes it difficult for the
organization to operate in a typical bureaucratic structure of inter-dependence.
Because the ties between educators are weaker than they are in other kinds of
organizations (because of less interdependence), there is a necessity to strengthen and
to clarify the purpose that unites individual educators to the organization. Weick
suggested that this infusion of purpose is dependent upon the leaders’ ability to
articulate a common vision.
The chief executive not only conceptualizes the purpose for the organization,
but also sets the tone for the way in which that organization will operate. The
superintendent is responsible to a large degree for the innovation that will be displayed
by others in schools. In this context, Osbom (1987) offered this comment:
The ideal top executive is both a creative pace setter and a creative
coach. He cultivates the creativity of those around him and makes
it bloom. Above all else, he must feel a real regard for the power of
ideas, (p. 346)
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Black and English (1986) also stated that the combination of idealism and ideology are
the essential characteristics of the most successful leaders in education. “Certainly
those leaders who are remembered most and most fondly are those who had a strong
sense of mission and who inspired others to internalize that mission themselves”
(P- 294).
Visionary and Planning Components
of Leadership
Bennis (1994) identified the visionary factor of leadership as critical to the
perception of those in the organization. He suggested that the first basic ingredient of
leadership is a guiding vision. He indicated that the leader must have a clear idea of
what he/she wants to do - professionally and personally - and the strength to persist in
the face of setbacks, even failures. “Unless you know where you are going and why,
you cannot possibly get there” (p.49). In the development of his Total Quality
Management philosophy of continuous improvement, Demings (1990) referred to the
concept of constancy of purpose as critical in developing a program to bring any new
approach successfully to industry. The constancy of the purpose concept has a
dramatic implication for school districts.
Along this same idea, Bradley (1993) stated that school organizations need to
spend more time thinking about the future. One of the largest obstacles to maintaining
constancy of purpose and thinking about the future has been the tendency of
superintendents to change jobs every three to five years. In addition to
superintendents changing jobs, school board members are being replaced at an
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increasing rate. This mobility also tends to shift the focus of school districts if the
superintendent is not pursuing a strong vision for the organization. Bradley (1993)
indicated a solution to this dilemma would be possible if superintendents had the
vision, or foresight, to involve the most stable members of their communities in the
development and implementation of long-term and/or strategic planning.
Another issue relating to future planning and superintendent turnover involves
the chronological age of many superintendents. Feistritzer (1988) repotted that 48%
of America’s superintendents was fifty years old or older. The California State
Department of Education (1999) stated that 40% of the superintendents in California
was fifty years old or older. Tallerico (2000) declared that the majority of the nation’s
16,000 school districts would need to hire a new superintendent within the next 5 to 7
years.
Leadership in Relation to
Organizational Culture
No research on leadership would be complete without a discussion on how
effective leadership produces a positive organizational culture. A strong
organizational culture in schools helps members of the group to develop constructive
and responsible attitudes toward change. It helps define roles and promotes group
cohesion that leads to goal achievement. Organizational culture also creates shared
language and norms regarding teaching and the use of instructional time. Most
important, it creates a shared mission and commitment among all members of the
organization to achieve the desired goals.
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Research conducted over the last thirty years has clarified the components of
organizational culture. Parsons (1960) indicated that for an organization and its
culture to remain healthy it must attend to four critical functions: (a) managing
change, (b) organizational achievement, (c) coordinated teamwork, and (d) cultural
strength. Deal and Kennedy (1982) supported the importance of school culture to goal
achievement. Sashkin (1993) added a fifth function to organizational culture, that of
customer orientation. Strong organizational cultures with these components create
meaning and help teach people how to behave in the organization so that top priorities
are supported. Schein (1986) reported that perhaps the only really important
contribution of leaders is to create effective organizational cultures. School leaders
who hope to achieve long-term positive outcomes need to be aware of and attend to
organizational culture.
Deal and Kennedy (1982) provided a clear description of culture as an
important element that should be addressed during organizational development efforts.
Their profiles of leaders as culture builders included individuals who also possessed
the behaviors and characteristics that other writers would call visionary.
Student Outcomes as Indicators
of Effective Planning in the
Organizational Culture
The “bottom line” outcome of a school district is student achievement. The
usual indicators are scores on standardized tests that are seldom inclusive of all
learning goals of the organization. Nevertheless, test scores constitute one measure by
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which the public evaluates school success. Therefore, how visionary leadership
impacts the bottom line performance outcome as reflected in standardized test scores
should be taken seriously.
Do superintendents have an impact on school outcomes at all? The main
outcome of schooling is student learning. Superintendents are at lease two levels
away from where learning occurs; both principals and teachers are closer. However,
as chief executive officers of school organizations, superintendents are responsible for
creating the vision and the mission, for setting the expectations, and for managing the
culture of the organization. They serve the same function as the CEO of a company
whose bottom-line outcome is profit or loss. Fostering a shared understanding of the
district’s mission and developing a strong culture and climate will influence the
district’s key outcome of student learning. A superintendent with high visionary
characteristics would be more adept at creating a strong organizational culture that
supports the mission of student achievement than would a superintendent with low
visionary characteristics (Sashkin, 1993). Bennis (1994) referred to superintendents
with low visionary characteristics as the organization man;
It was the mechanistic view that produced the organization man, and it was the
organization man, as I have noted, who ironically enough has caused many of
the problems in our organizations. It is the individual, operating at the peak of
his creative and moral powers, who will revive our organizations, by
reinventing himself and them. (p. 102)
Roosevelt (1991) supported Bennis’ statement of beliefs through his discussion
on transformational leadership from an organization to a community in the Colloquia
for School-Based Management Project. He made the following statement;
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Communities are committed to exemplary practice toward valued social ends.
In a community, concern is not only for one’s own practice but also for the
practice of learning itself. Communities exemplify competence and virtue.
When school districts are communities, they are no longer driven exclusively
by the requirements of hierarchy and the use o f‘pop’ culture leadership
activities. Anew kind of leadership emerges-moral leadership. This is the
real basis for leadership, (p. 27)
He went on to give examples of superintendents who obviously had more
autonomy than their staff; yet they still worked long and difficult hours even though
no one is constantly looking over one’s shoulders because the work itself is rewarding.
According to Bennis (1994), this type of moral leadership comes from a highly
committed individual who believes that he or she can or will make a difference or is
actually making a difference.
Role of the Superintendent in the
Change Process
Have superintendents demonstrated that they are, and will continue to be,
innovative leaders who support change? Research does not suggest that this
innovative orientation is the case. Schneider (1973) in Roadblocks to Reform
discussed the research of Zeigler, who studied the change process in education.
Zeiglers’s research did not present a positive picture of the superintendent as an agent
for change. The conclusions of Zeigler’s study suggested that, “what the
superintendent generally wants, unfortunately for the reformers and critics, is status
quo” (p. 73).
Zeigler noted the small percentage of male teachers who remained in the
teaching profession for more than five years (from whom the majority of current
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administrators has been selected) and found that they tended to become conservative
and unwilling to take risks (Schneider, 1973). The results of this research were
confirmed by those of the research by Coulson (1984), in which superintendents were
compared with CEOs and shown to be much more analytical rather than conceptual.
CEOs were more balanced in the use of analytical and conceptual knowledge than
were superintendents, and they also demonstrated a far greater use of creativity. In his
research, Norris (1984) supported this trend, as superintendents were found to be
analytical and technical in their problem solving approach rather than intuitive and
conceptual.
Research conducted by Shirley Hord and Gene Hall at the Research and
Development Center for Teacher Education in Austin, Texas pertained to leadership
styles used by superintendents in implementing new curriculum programs and policies
(Piele & Smith, 1989). School districts having the greatest success were led by
initiators - superintendents who formulated a vision for the school district and took
care of staff members who implemented the vision and thus increased student
achievement. School districts that had the least success had superintendents that
implemented new curriculum as responders who were preoccupied with not hurting
the feelings of others and with letting their faculty members do the work and become
the leaders. School districts that enjoyed moderate successes had school
superintendents that were managers who made sure that their faculty members were
not doing too much in relation to tasks and were making sure that tasks were done
correctly (Piele & Smith, 1989). The initiators were the most successful group of
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superintendents by demonstrating a balance between having a vision for the
organization and the interpersonal skills to lead effectively the members of the
organization.
Need for Change in the Superintendency
It is not likely that America’s schools can restructure, reorganize, and revitalize
the educational process in the absence of clear executive leadership given by the
superintendency. For this reason alone, the current and potential role of the
superintendency and its future prospects are of more than passing concern to the
education profession in trying to bring about change.
Need for Data To Implement
Planning for Change
Until recently, a general lack of research findings about the nature of the
superintendency, its demographics, and its composition served to inhibit personnel
planning associated with the need for change. The previous subsections concerned
with the role of the superintendent pointed to the overall issues facing the
superintendent trying to implement change. There has been a pressing need for data
for the just enumerated factors to guide and to inform the individuals involved in the
decision-making process within the climate of educational reform. This limitation
posed by a lack of data has been compounded by the absence of established national
professional standards based on an explicit knowledge base against which
competencies might be monitored and developed. Some states have initiated multiple
choice tests which must be passed by candidates in order to acquire supervision
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credentials. Candidates need also to provide evidence of relevant experience and other
educational prerequisites (Blanchard, Zigarmi, & Nelson, 1993).
There are approximately 16,000 school districts within the United States. The
size of each varies, ranging from a single building with 100 students to districts the
size of Los Angeles containing half a million students. To complicate the picture
further, school districts are situated across a range of diverse geographical locations.
Districts in Arizona may have 60 mile bus routes one way from school to home, while
other districts may have 100,000 students to transport within a four mile radius.
Similarly, the highly variable nature of school finances considerably influences the
superintendent’s role. Districts such as East St. Louis, Illinois, which currently have
only $6,000 assessed evaluation per student, exist in the same state where other
districts have $400,000 assessed evaluation per student (Wessman, 1988).
Problems Facing the Superintendent
Desiring To Implement Needed Changes
The Washington Post called the school superintendency “the impossible job”
because it is a role in which the forces are so difficult to understand, much less control
(Hetrick, 1993, p. 129). Nowhere is there a job with higher expectations, but with so
little trust and confidence as that of the superintendency. The superintendency
requires exceptional leadership skills to preside over the education of thousands of
young people in an age full of media attention, where virtually all stakeholders
consider themselves to be experts, where elections on each level bring new, often ill-
advised solutions, and where there seems to be a general deterioration in the family
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and community. The chifef official of the school district is expected to answer
questions from critics, reporters, business owners, civic and government leaders,
parents, and school board members without offending people whose demands are
sometimes extremely irrational and/or impossible. In attempting to respond to every
stakeholder, superintendents must direct those working within the organization
continually to improve student learning - while shielding educators from the negative
impact society has to offer.
The superintendency requires incredible physical stamina, leadership skill,
vision, and a strong desire to use one’s power to improve the lives of children. The
job calls for sound judgment, political acuity, and willingness to subordinate one’s
private goals to those of the community (Norton, 19%).
The conditions of the early 1990s have continued to worsen. As reported by
the National Association of State Boards of Education (1992), the difficulties are
pinpointed as follows:
During 1991, approximately 30 school boards governing some of the
nation’s largest school systems replaced their superintendents. Some of
these vacancies were due to retirement, others to new opportunities and
upward mobility; but the overwhelming majority were attributed to the
pressures of an extraordinarily stressful job. As vacancies occur, urban
school boards are finding fewer applicants willing to assume the
considerable demands of administering these multimillion dollar
education systems with their greater number of social problems and
political factions, less dollars per student, and intensive public scrutiny.
(P- 5)
During the 1992 to 1993 academic year, more than three dozen urban
superintendency positions were unfilled. The number of well prepared candidates to
fill these positions was dwindling. Johnson (19%) followed the work of 12 newly
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appointed superintendents through the first two years of their tenure. The study was
far more difficult than had been expected. Johnson found that half of the districts in
her sample had experienced repeated turnover in the past decade. The financial and
organizational costs of such turnover weigh heavily on the school district and on the
staff who are trying to hold it together.
Training and Preparation Programs for
the Superintendent
Preparation programs for superintendents have been thoroughly castigated in
several recent reports. The report of the National Policy Board for Educational
Administration (NPBEA, 1989) was especially harsh in this regard. This report noted
that preparation programs for superintendents were generally well known by the
public more for their deficiencies than for their strengths. In brief, many
contemporary reports addressing the training and preparation of superintendents and
other school administrators tend to assert that programs are frequently haphazard and
unregulated. For the most part, preparatory programs are regarded as being ineffective
in producing the type of executive that schools and school systems require and have a
right to expect. The job performance of superintendents is also evaluated in reform
documents, but very few, unfortunately, report any remedies for the ineffective
leadership that is reported to exist (Carter & Cunningham, 1997).
One common problem that could contribute to a breakdown in quality
superintendents is that career progression of potential superintendents tends to be self-
selective. A common pattern is one where individuals, with aspirations to become
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principals or superintendents, seek graduate programs terminating in state
certification, undertake the courses, serve an on-the-job internship, pass the requisite
examinations, and therefore become certified and eligible to seek an appointment
(Carter, Glass, & Hord, 1993). As the National Policy Board for Educational
Administration (NPBEA) points out, efforts on the part of states and institutions of
higher education to be proactive in recruiting individuals who have the potential to
become outstanding school executives are very much limited to non-existent. As entry
requirements for admission to preparation programs in higher education are minimal,
they do not, as a rule, include any type of formal assessment other than prior grades in
college work, a score on the Graduate Record Examinations (Educational Testing
Service, 1948-2001), and letters of reference from individuals self-selected by the
applicant. Seldom are assessment instruments used that might enable institutions
formally to appraise an applicant’s aptitudes, professional skills, knowledge, and basic
personality profile before admittance to their programs.
In the absence of formal assessments, the selection of future superintendents is
based almost exclusively on verbal, quantitative, and past grade point average criteria.
Few educational administration programs have well developed recruiting procedures
explicitly designed to identify successful educational administrators who might make
successful school superintendents, in the professional opinion of significant others in
the field (NPBEA, 1989).
There are many reasons why educational administrative programs have been
reluctant or resistant to change in the use of formalized assessment criteria for
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recruiting purposes. Research studies have indicated that some programs in some
institutions are engaged in both assessment and recruiting in a systematic way, but that
the majority still is not. This circumstance may have been due to the fact that the
majority of the departments of educational/administrative leadership throughout the
nation has been very small with fewer than five faculty members. In these situations,
the time and money required to conduct assessment activities are not easy to realize.
Assessment is further inhibited in those universities or colleges dominated by a
traditional organization model oriented to past academic experience rather than toward
the pursuit of professionally relevant qualifications of high quality (Carter &
Cunningham, 1997).
Many colleges of education in the United States appear to have an identity
crisis as to whether they are professional schools in the practitioner sense or narrowly
defined academic institutions. Stereotypically, professors of education seeking
advancement spend a great portion of their time as an academic in the narrow sense
rather than as one attending to the professional role one has to fulfill as well. In actual
terms, this situation means that professors spend their time conducting research and
writing refereed journal articles - a process usually accepted in academia as the way to
gain tenure, to achieve promotion, or to earn recognition for one’s contribution to
scholarship. As noted in a personal conversation with the chairperson of the doctoral
committee of this writer, the undue emphasis on the “publish or perish” reprint race all
too often has diminished the quality of teaching and the availability of professors to
assist their students. In many instances, students have been “short changed” in their
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educational endeavors, while professors have had to pursue their own self-centered
goals in the survival process within the university.
In marked contrast, some professors are more oriented toward professional
training and practical fieldwork. Presenting real financial simulations, participating in
dialoguing over actual in-basket items, offering extended programs through
professional grants that otherwise would not be available, and creating opportunities
for those in training to converse with highly successful individuals already in the field
- all these activities significantly contribute to the professionally relevant
qualifications needed in today’s workplace.
Many times, those professors who spend their time developing these applicable
programs place themselves at a career disadvantage within the university setting.
Pressures within universities to maintain the status quo, combined with a lack of
resources, direct the attention of professors of educational administration toward their
own academic performance rather than toward a professional and field experience
concept of instruction. It should be noted, however, that the two points of view
(emphasis on research vs. emphasis on teaching) are not always mutually exclusive.
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Ten Year Study of 1992
indicates that the credibility level of professors of education, as judged by practicing
superintendents, has fallen substantially since the 1982 Ten Year Study (Glass, 1992).
In general, colleges of education are neither provided with adequate resources
nor encouraged to prepare educational administrators outside of existing
organizational paradigms. Seldom are funds allocated and resources applied to
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furthering extensive practica and internships for students. Rarely are aspiring
superintendents placed in supportive job-related environments where sophisticated
management training can occur (Talierico, 2000).
For the aspiring superintendent, one issue to consider is where to go to acquire
the best training and professional preparation for the role. Most aspirants take a
rational approach by (a) questioning themselves concerning which areas of training
and initial preparation they perceive as being most needed and (b) identifying
programs in which these areas can be most efficiently learned. Most often, these
actions are conditioned by what is locally available and by what would not require the
individual to interrupt his or her employment.
University settings are not the only resource aspiring superintendents have to
acquire training and preparation. The Association of American School Administrators
holds new and aspiring superintendent symposia in many states. Feedback from
superintendents and from those aspiring for the position is generally very positive
(AASA, 1993).
In 1974, the C.W. Post competency-based administrator education (CBAE)
proposal for preparing school administrators became one of the first programs in New
York state whereby a graduate may become eligible for either the New York State
School District Administrator (SDA) and /or School Administrator and Supervisor
(SAS) certification. The purpose of the program was to prepare administrators for
leadership positions such as superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant
superintendent, principal, assistant principal, supervisor, department chairperson,
coordinator, director, or unit head.
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In 1993, the state of New York recognized the lack of preparation inherent
among its newly trained administrators. Personnel in education began to construct
training modules that would focus on skills needed for administrators to be successful
in the year 2000. They interviewed superintendents, assistant superintendents,
principals (high school, middle school, elementary), and assistant principals (high
schools, middle schools). As a result, the focus of their training has been the
acquisition of new knowledge and skills necessary to be visionary and risk-taking, to
embrace diversity, to maintain interpersonal skills, to understand the work of schools,
and to lead and manage more effectively (Lester, 1993).
Hawley and Valli (1996) wrote about a new consensus that must emerge
concerning professional development of superintendents because of a lack of quality
leadership among school district organizations. This consensus called for providing
collegial opportunities to identify those areas that needed to be linked directly to
solving authentic problems. Hawley and Valli went on to argue that a new outlook
was needed to determine what the characteristics of preservice and inservice for
school administrators should be. As the changes in educational administration and
responsibilities increase, so must the professional development activities and the
support provided. They explained that the task of leading and not just managing a
school district is enormous and fulfilling if training, development, and required
support are provided. Successful superintendents have a ripple effect impact on their
district office staff, school site staff, parents, students, and ultimately the community.
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As the literature demonstrates, the need for change is incredible and constantly
growing not only in the position of the superintendency but also in the various
preparation and training programs that are available for aspiring superintendents. But
how do aspiring superintendents, or veteran superintendents, know the areas in which
they need more training and development as a professional? Are improved training
and preparation programs the ultimate key to developing such finely-tuned
superintendents that all of America’s educational woes would be remedied if only
these preparation programs were improved?
Summary of Literature
To summarize the thrust of the available literature, the achievement of true
reform and the required restructuring of American schools, will not occur as a
consequence of current or future fads manifesting themselves under slogans such as
choice or site-based m anagem ent Many changes are needed. What is needed first is
that society at large must come to a consensus about what the nature and role of
schools will be, at both a national and local level. This consensus which must be
pervasive needs to be supported throughout all levels of politics. Not even the best
trained superintendent in the world can work effectively when the stakeholders to
whom he or she answers are not exactly clear concerning the mission and goals for
their educational system.
Second, the preparation of educational leaders should follow the establishment
of a national consensus regarding the aims of education, as citizens will shoulder the
major responsibility for leading the nation’s schools toward desired goals. Individuals
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who undertake this mission must be carefully selected, effectively trained, and
competent to confront the tasks that lie ahead. They must be prepared to take on a
transformational development of school organizations that educate all children for a
productive life for the benefit not only of these children, but also of the society within
which they live.
Third, the CEO of the school system, the superintendent, is the crucial change
agent. He or she not only must guide, direct, and foster innovation in education, but
also must nurture its growth and emergence from colleagues and subordinates within
the organization. As the learning process is of its very nature change-oriented, and
cannot exist in a stagnant, status quo environment, powerful learning involves building
on experiences, generating new directions, and moving forward. Innovation and
progress require of top level administrators the ability to be visionary and to direct the
organization toward that vision. The role of the superintendent involves moving his or
her school district toward new future frontiers in the dual process of exploring and
creating those frontiers simultaneously.
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CHAPTER ID
METHODOLOGY
This study focused on factual characteristics of superintendent training and
preparation programs according to practicing superintendents in the state of California.
Descriptive in nature, this study employed a mailed survey form that included a
demographic section, a structured-answer section, and an open-ended answer section.
This chapter is organized in terms of a description of (a) characteristics of the sample
of superintendents surveyed, (b) the instrumentation employed, (c) data collection
process, and (d) data analysis.
Sample
Superintendents know, better than anyone else, what type of training and
preparation they have had, or needed to have, in order to understand and to carry-out
the actual tasks and activities required on the job. Superintendents were asked to
respond to a mailed survey form regarding details about their training and preparation
for the superintendency. Once the survey instrument was finalized through a field test,
it was mailed to superintendents across California with district enrollments between
2,500 students and 15,000 students. Twenty-five hundred students constituted the
minimum size of the school district in order to avoid the smaller school district where
the superintendent might have multiple roles in addition to the superintendency. A
criterion of 15,000 students was used as maximum size of the school district in order
to attain the input from superintendents with larger school districts while also limiting
the sample size. By using the 1999 California Public School Directory (California
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Department of Education, 1999), the researcher sought superintendents from school
districts that fell within the enrollment parameters. According to Bailey (1982), 30 is
considered by many as the minimum size of a sample. Lastrucci (1976) called for
samples of 100 while Chadwick, Bahr and Albrecht (1985) encouraged the selection
o f200 cases for a sample. According to the 1999 California Public School Directory.
there are 320 superintendents of school districts with enrollments between 2,500
students and 15,000 students. These superintendents became the basis for generating
what was considered to be a reasonably representative sample for this study.
Instrumentation
After the literature review and development of research questions, a survey
instrument was field tested that provided the information necessary to answer the
initial research questions. Twelve demographic questions (Part I), five structured-
answer questions (Part II), and four open-ended questions (Part m) were included in
the survey instrument. The survey form is reproduced in the Appendix.
Part I contained 12 demographic questions relating to personal and school
district details. This section at the beginning of the survey was based on the work of
Sudman, Seymour, and Bradbum (1982). They concluded that the demographic items
of a questionnaire should be at the beginning of a short survey scale.
Entitled Structure-Answer Questions, Part II contained five broad statements.
Within the first broad statement there were listed six domains associated with the
leadership role of the superintendent (General Education, Instructional Leadership,
Administrative Leadership, Human Relations, Personal Capabilities, and Multicultural
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Perspectives). Each domain offered four alternative types of training or preparatory
experiences, which were to be rated as either extremely valuable, very valuable,
somewhat valuable, or minimally valuable. Corresponding to these alternatives, the
respondent indicated a score ranging from a numerical value of 1 (extremely valuable)
to a numerical value of 4 (minimally valuable). The second broad statement listed 40
activities, characteristics, or issues in preparatory or training experiences that were
related to the six previously stated domains. Each activity, characteristic, or issue was
rated on the same four-point Likert-type scale as just described. The third, fourth, and
fifth broad statements constituted questions pertaining to preparatory or training
experiences that allowed the respondent to select an answer from a number of
alternatives.
Part III comprised four open-ended questions designed to provide more
personal responses from the superintendents regarding preparation and training. Isaac
and Michael (1995) stated that the final survey form (after the pilot trial) should be
brief simple, clear, and straightforward. Chadwick, Bahr, and Albrecht (1984) found
that in order to obtain the most nearly accurate results and highest possible return rates
items in a questionnaire must be simple in their statement and limited in their number
with only a few open-ended questions being posed.
Drafts of any survey should be pretested (Cozby, 1997; Dillman, 1978; Isaac &
Michael, 1995). The researcher asked seven colleagues made up of superintendents,
deputy superintendents, assistant superintendents, and former superintendents to carry
out a pilot study of the preliminary survey form. Following this activity, revisions
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were made and evaluated in a second field testing. The final survey form is
reproduced in the Appendix.
Data Collection
The survey forms were mailed with an appropriate cover letter to all 320
identified superintendents. Included was a postage-paid, self-addressed return
envelope in order to maintain the confidential status of each survey. Two-hundred
surveys were completed and returned. All but one were correctly completed. Nine
surveys packets were “retumed-to-sender” because of incorrect address information.
The numbers of survey forms received represented a return rate of 62.5% (200 out of
320) for all mailed surveys and 64.3% (200 out of 311) return on surveys that were
actually mailed because of the nine having been returned to the sender.
Data Analysis
Once surveys were returned, data were processed using descriptive and
inferential statistics. The following procedures were employed:
1 . A coding and tabulating system was identified so that percentages and
frequencies of responses could be analyzed.
2. Cross tabulations were made between each of four selected demographic
variables and levels of response on a four-step Likert-type scale for each of several
selected activities, characteristics, or issues associated with the preparation and
training experiences of superintendents. Chi square tests of the frequencies in
contingency tables representing cross classifications were completed and evaluated for
statistical significance of the degree of association.
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3. Responses to the open-ended questions representing perceptions of the
superintendents concerning their training and preparation were recorded by hand and
then categorized. A qualitative description of these findings focused on the
identification of themes that emerged. Attempts were made to analyze these themes in
l ight of the previous responses on the survey forms in order to validate results
(Maxwell, 1996). Frequencies were computed for each of the 40 areas listed in the
structured-answer section (Part II) item statement 2 of the survey form.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
In this chapter, the results are reported within the framework of each of the five
research questions posed in Chapter I. The outcomes relevant to the first four research
questions are presented in the first section dealing with the analysis of the data.
Inasmuch as the fifth research question is directed toward implications, it is considered
in the second section dealing with the discussion and interpretation of the results of the
investigation.
Analysis of Data
Characteristics of the Training and Preparation of
Superintendents Judged bv Them To Be Most
or Least Valuable in Job Performance
(Research Question H
In the survey form, the section entitled Structured-Answer Questions - Part n,
contains five broad statements directing the respondent to provide requested
information. The second broad statement requests the respondent to assign one of four
numbers to each of 40 items in terms of the identified preparatory activity being
extremely valuable, very valuable, somewhat valuable, or minimally valuable in their
superintendent training. The percentages of responses associated with scale categories
of 1 (extremely valuable) or 2 (very valuable) are set forth in Table I . As indicated in
Table 1, 33 of the 40 items concerned with how valuable prior training and preparation
had been in performing the responsibilities associated with the superintendency were
40
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Table 1
Percentages of Superintendents Giving Responses of Either Very Valuable
or Extremely Valuable to Each of 40 Item Statements Identifying
Activities, Characteristics, or Issues Addressed in Their
Preparation and Training for the Superintendency
Item Statement Rank Item Statement Rank
Board relationships 97.5 Empowerment 85.2
Team building 97.0 Organizing for instruction 84.3
Communication 96.4 Financial resource mgt. 84.0
Organizational climate 96.0 Humanistic issues 83.1
Community relationships 95.5 Drive, energy, courage 82.5
Managing change 95.4 Social/political issues 81.3
Trust building 95.0 Positiveness 80.9
Human resource develop. 93.4 Staff perceptions 80.7
School/community relat. 93.0 School structures 80.7
Evaluating instruction 92.9 Non-adversarial bargain. 76.7
Strategic planning 92.5 Facilities development 75.8
Legal issues 91.5 Empathy 75.7
Influencing/motivating 91.5 Cross-cultural differences 75.3
Administrative relation. 90.9 Intelligence 74.4
Conflict management 90.8 Central office structures 70.7
Instructional planning 87.9 Home perceptions/attitudes 70.4
Ethics 87.8 Altruism 70.0
Employee evaluation 87.4 Wellness 69.4
Staffing for instruction 85.9 Technological issues 66.5
Openmindedness 85.5 Socioeconomic differences 65.3
judged to be extremely valuable or very valuable by at least 75% of the respondents.
The seven activities or features in the list receiving a response of at least 95% for the
two just cited response categories (extremely valuable or very valuable) were (a)
board relationships (97.5%), (b) team building (97.0%), (c) communication (96.4%),
(d) organization climate/culture (96.0%), (e) community relationships (9S.5%),
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(f) managing change (9S.4%), and (g) trust building (95.0%). In terms of the criterion
of at least 25% of the respondents stating that any one of the 40 shed features in Table
1 was minimally valuable, not one hem was chosen.
Four Types of Training or Preparatory Experiences
Judged To Be Most Valuable or Least Valuable
Within Six Domains of Personal Characteristics
(Research Question 2)
With respect to the first broad statement falling in the Structured-Answer
Questions - Part II, of the survey form in which four types of training or preparatory
experiences (university programs, on-the-job experiences within education,
professional organizations, or on-the-job experiences within the private sector) were
cited within each of the six domains of personal characteristics (General Education,
Instructional Leadership, Administrative Leadership, Human Relations, Personal
Capabilities, and Multicultural Perspectives) a criterion of 75% of the sample of
superintendents indicating a response of ehher very valuable or extremely valuable
was employed in the identification of a type of preparatory or training experience as
being indicative of a constructive and useful contributor to the job performance of the
superintendent. A criterion o f at least 25% of responses reported for any one of the
four types of training or preparatory experiences as being minimally valuable was
chosen to reflect a lack of a significant contribution to the job performance of the
superintendent. These same two criteria were employed in forming a judgment of the
job performance value of the 40 previously cited activities, characteristics or issues
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related to preparatory and training experiences contributing to the job performance of
the superintendent (broad statement 2 in Part II) - information previously reported in
Table 1 .
In Table 2, the percentages of individuals providing responses of either very valuable
or extremely valuable are set forth for each of four preparatory activities in the
training received by superintendents (university programs, on-the-job experiences
within education, professional organizations, and on-the-job-experiences within
private sector) within each of the six broad domains (General Education, Instructional
Leadership, Administrative Leadership, Human Relations, Personal Capabilities, and
Multicultural Perspectives). Across all six broad domains, only the alternative of on-
the-job experiences within education met the criterion of being a significant
contributor to job performance - percentages of responses to the alternatives of very
valuable or extremely valuable varying between 93.9% and 97.4%. In the same
context, only four of the 24 possible response alternatives met the criterion (25% or
lower) in being either valuable or extremely valuable of a lack of being a significant
contributor to the job performance of the superintendent. All four alternatives fell
within the alternative of on-the-job experiences within private sector. For the
remaining two response alternatives of (a) university programs and (b) professional
organizations, the respective percentages of checked alternatives falling into the
categories of either very valuable or extremely valuable varied between 29.9 and 63 .1
and between 32.8 and 47.0.
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Table 2
Percentage of Superintendents Providing Responses of Either Very Valuable or
Extremely Valuable for Each of Four Preparatory Activities in the Training
Received by Superintendents in Six Domains
GENERAL EDUCATION
63.1 % university programs
96.0% on-the-job experiences within education
32.8% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
9.0% on-the-job experiences within private sector
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
54.1 % university programs
93.9% on-the-job experiences within education
47.0% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
5.6% on-the-job experiences within private sector
ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP
51.3% university programs
97.4% on-the-job experiences within education
43.6% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
11.3% on-the-job experiences within private sector
HUMAN RELATIONS
29.9% university programs
98.4% on-the-job experiences within education
46.2% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
24.6% on-the-job experiences within private sector
PERSONAL CAPABILITIES
36.5% university programs
96.4% on-the-job experiences within education
40.2% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
30.5% on-the-job experiences within private sector
MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
41.1% university programs
94.4% on-the-job experiences within education
37.0% professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
25.4% on-the-job experiences within private sector
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Relationship of Each of Four Demographic Variables
to Selected Members of the List of Forty Activities.
Characteristics, or Issues in Preparatory and
Training Experiences (Research Question 3)
Of the 160 possible cross classifications between each of four demographic
variables (size of school district, length of experience as superintendent, gender, and
education level) to selected members of the list of 40 activities, characteristics or
issues in preparatory and training experiences (cited in Table 1), only 16 yielded
statistically significant levels of association as indicated by chi square tests. Size of
school district was significantly related to (a) home perceptions/attitudes (p = .003),
(b) socioeconomic differences (p = .008), (c) school structures/expectations (p = .017),
(d) staff perceptions/attitudes (p = .028), (e) altruism (p = .031), and (f) organizing
instruction (p = .048). Length of experience as superintendent afforded a statistically
significant association with (a) trust building (p = .010), (b) influencing/motivating
(p = .010), (c) intelligence (p = .023), and (d) openmindedness (p = .028). A
statistically reliable relationship occurred between gender and (a) influencing/
motivating (p = .019), (b) openmindedness (p = .033), (c) legal issues (p = .034),
(d) non-adversarial bargaining (p = .042), and (e) positiveness (p = .048). Education
level provided a statistically significant correlation only with staffing for instruction
(p = .042).
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Themes Underlying the Responses to Three Open-Ended
Questions Pertaining to Value of Preparatory Training
Activities (Research Question 4)
Table 3 provides a tabulation of the frequency of categorized responses to
three open-ended questions in the survey form (questions numbered 1, 2, and 4 in Part
III). For each of the three questions, those major categories receiving at least 25
responses are cited on the left-hand side of the table; those other classifications
assigned 15 or fewer responses are reported on the right-hand side of the table. For
the convenience of the reader, the three open-ended questions are stated in Table 3.
For the first open-ended question dealing with the most valuable aspect of preparation
prior to attaining the position of superintendent was that of on-the-job training, which
received 97 endorsements. In the instance of the second open-ended question dealing
with what type of training/preparation would have helped the respondent to be better
prepared for the superintendency, three fairly evenly chosen categories emerged
carrying 39, 37, and 29 endorsements respectively associated with (a) internship/
mentoring with a superintendent, (b) board relationship training, and (c) budget/
finance preparation. For the last open-ended question pertaining to what part of the
training/preparation the respondent considered to be of least value for subsequent
performance on the job, the category of university coursework received an
overwhelming frequency of 72 citations. It is noteworthy, however, that 65
respondents reported that none of their training/preparation activities could be
considered of least value.
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Table 3
Frequency of Categorized Responses to Three Open-Ended Questions
from Part IQ of the Survey Form
1 . What single most effective aspect of your preparation prior to the superintendency has
been the most \aluable to you as a practicing superintendent? Please be specific.
Maior Categories (25 or more responses! Minor Categories (15 or fewer responses) .
On the job training 97
Watching an experienced supt. 34
Doctoral work 23
Human relations
ACSA/CSLA
Finance
Change
Leadership style
Desire to leam
Strategic plan.
Communication
Legal
Teambuilding
Research skills
Reflection
Private sector experience
2. What type of training/preparation would have helped you be better prepared for the
superintendency?
Major Categories (23 or more responses) Minor Categories (15 or fewer responses)
Internship/mentor with Supt.
mgt.
Board relationship training
skills
Budget preparation/Finance
39 Bargaining experience Conflict
37 Nothing People
29 ACSA Supt. Academy Vision
Facilities training Crisis train.
More on the job training Legal
Real case studies Change
Curriculum/instruction training Strat. Plan.
Doctoral work
4. From your experiences as a superintendent, what part of your training/preparation
would you consider to be of least valued
Major Categories (25 or more responses! Minor Categories (15 or fewer responses)
University Coursework
(Doctoral work 16, Theories 11,
Finance 7, History 5, Stats 5,
Technology 4)
None
72
63
ACSA/ACSD
Negotiations
Private sector exper.
Strategic plan.
Time from dist.
Fake case study
Facilities information
Cultural differences training
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Implications for the Training/Preparation of
Superintendents Based on Their Citation of
the Most Challenging Activity in Their
Career (Research Question 51
In Part m of the survey form, an open-ended question dealing with what the
respondent would consider to be the most challenging activity throughout his or her
career as a superintendent, the category of board relationships received an
overwhelming frequency of 75 responses followed by 32 responses for the
classification of union/negotiations activities and 22 citations for the category of
change. It is interesting to note that in another open-ended question dealing with what
type of training/preparation would have helped the respondent to be better prepared
for the superintendency a response category of board relationship training received 37
endorsements.
Discussion and Interpretation of Findings
A rather striking negative outcome of this investigation was that university
coursework and associated programs were not perceived as being of great value in the
preparation and training of superintendents. This finding was essentially consistent
with the content in the report of the National Policy Board for Educational
Administration (NPBEA, 1999) as well as with the position taken by Carter, Glass and
Hord (1993) and by Carter and Cunningham (1997). These authors pointed out that
colleges and universities have been dominated by a traditional organization model
oriented to past academic experience rather than toward the pursuit of professionally
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relevant high quality training. It may well be that professors of education are so
committed to enhancement of their reputations through publication of papers the
content of which has little relevance to the day-to-day demands placed on
administrators in a realistic world of unmet challenges within education.
Glass (1992) has pointed out that the credibility level of professors of
education as evaluated by practicing superintendents has decreased substantially since
1982. It would appear that colleges of education should place increased emphasis in
having their professional staff interact more closely in the form of on-site visits with
teachers and administrators in the public school settings. Such visitations might afford
opportunities for graduate students majoring in school administration to gain
important preparatory experiences in terms of their establishing a mentor-like
relationship with principals and even superintendents. Those graduate students who
already have had substantial administrative experience as principals or even assistant
superintendents could be provided with some intern experiences at their current job
location. Consistent with this approach was a potentially important implication of the
recent contribution by Tallerico (2000). He suggested placing those who aspire to be
superintendents in job-related environments where sophisticated management training
could occur. The introduction of a meaningful internship experience would be one
way to receiving sophisticated management training. In collaboration with public
schools, colleges of education could help to provide support for internships by
encouraging their clinical faculty members to play a meaningful role in the internship
experience.
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CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS,
AND REFLECTIONS
This chapter includes (a) a summary of the study including a statement of the
major purposes and research questions, an overview of the methodology, and selected
findings, (b) conclusions, and (c) recommendations.
Summary
Background
During the past 100 years, the American public school superintendency
has moved through three distinct phases of growth and development. Research has
indicated that a fourth phase has just begun. Traditionally, the district superintendent,
or CEO, has been held ultimately responsible for the success of the public schools.
The bottom-line responsibility for influencing and managing the quality of education
rests on superintendents’ shoulders even though teachers, principals, and school board
members greatly outnumber superintendents (Carter, Glass & Hord, 1993).
As society enters a new century, it is apparent that the profession of the school
superintendency is more important than it has ever been. Today’s superintendents
must be well grounded from solid financial management knowledge, to child growth
and development expertise, not to mention the need to possess political acuity, skills in
organizational and group behavior, and a background utilizing effective staff
development and student personnel practices. Certainly, the superintendent must be
knowledgeable in matters pertaining to instructional options, application of the most
promising research, assessment, and evaluation and allocation of human, financial,
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and material resources. Many superintendents, however, are still saying that this
knowledge is insufficient, given the existing climate in American education (Carter &
Cunningham, 1997). Before the superintendent is able to apply any of this knowledge,
he or she must first learn to survive in a very difficult, highly politicized, conflictive
job. The success and prosperity of American education may well depend as much on
the survival of the superintendent as it does on his or her ability to be an effective
educational leader.
Purposes of the Study
The primary purpose of this investigation was to obtain evidence from a
sample of 199 public school superintendents in California on their perceptions of those
features of their training and preparation that had been perceived as most or least
valuable in contributing to their job performance in the superintendency. A secondary
purpose was to identify statistically significant relationships of each of four
demographic variables to the level of perceived value of selected features of their
training and preparatory experience leading to the superintendency. A qualitative
effort was made to identify possible underlying themes or patterns of responses to
open-ended questions in the survey form that pertained to their training and
preparation prior to the superintendency.
Research Questions
Consistent with the purposes of this investigation, the following specific
research questions were posed:
1. Among a list of 40 activities or characteristics associated with the training
of 199 California public school superintendents, which ones did at least 75% of the
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sample of superintendents indicate to be either very valuable or extremely valuable or
at least 25% to be minimally valuable?
2. Within each of six broad domains of personal characteristics encountered in
the superintendency (General Education, Instructional Leadership, Administrative
Leadership, Human Relations, Personal Capabilities, or Multicultural Perspectives),
for which of each of the following four categories did at least 75% of the sample of
superintendents indicate to be either very valuable or extremely valuable or at least
25% to be minimally valuable - namely, university programs, on-the-job experiences
within education, professional organizations, or on-the-job experiences within the
private sector?
3. Which ones of four demographic variables (length of experience as a
superintendent, education level, gender, or size of school district) revealed a
statistically significant association with each of several of the 40 characteristics
considered in the first research question?
4. Relative to the responses of the sample of superintendents to three open-
ended questions regarding their reaction to prior training and preparation for the
superintendency, what were identifiable themes underlying their perceptions
concerning (a) the most valuable feature in terms of its maximum effectiveness in their
practice as superintendents, (b) the type of training or preparation that would have
helped them to be better prepared for the superintendency, and (c) which part of their
training or preparation was considered to be of least value?
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S. What implications might be formulated for the training and preparation of
superintendents in relation to the three most frequently cited challenging activities
they have encountered in their superintendency?
Methods and Procedures
This study focused on characteristics of superintendent training and
preparation programs according to practicing superintendents in the state o f California.
Descriptive in nature, this study employed a mailed survey form that included a
demographic section, a stmctured-answer section, and an open-ended answer section.
Superintendents were asked to respond to a mailed survey form regarding details
about their training and preparation for the superintendency. Once the survey
instrument was finalized through a field test, it was mailed to superintendents across
California with district enrollments between 2,500 students and 15,000 students.
According to the 1999 California Public School Directory there are 320
superintendents of school districts with enrollments between 2,500 students and
15,000 students. Of the 320 surveys mailed, 225 surveys were returned from
superintendents. Only 200 of the 225 survey forms were utilized in data analysis
because the other 25 survey forms were returned well after the deadline. One of the
survey forms was unreadable, which ultimately left 199 survey forms to be analyzed
for this study.
Instrumentation
A survey instrument was field tested that provided the information necessary to
answer the initial research questions. Twelve demographic questions (Part I), five
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structured-answer questions (Part II), and four open-ended questions (Part III) were
included in the survey instrument.
Part I contained 12 demographic questions relating to personal and school
district characteristics. Part II contained five broad statements. Within the first broad
statement there were listed six domains associated with the leadership role of the
superintendent (General Education, Instructional Leadership, Administrative
Leadership, Human Relations, Personal Capabilities, and Multicultural Perspectives).
Each domain offered four alternative types of training or preparatory experiences,
which were to be rated as either extremely valuable, very valuable, somewhat
valuable, or minimally valuable. Corresponding to these alternatives, the
superintendent indicated a score ranging from a numerical value of 1 (extremely
valuable) to a numerical value of 4 (minimally valuable). The second broad statement
listed 40 activities, characteristics, or issues in preparatory or training experiences that
were related to the six previously stated domains. Each activity, characteristic, or
issue was rated on the same four-point Likert-type scale as just described. The third,
fourth, and fifth broad statements constituted questions pertaining to preparatory or
training experiences that allowed the superintendent to select an answer from a
number of alternatives. Part m comprised four open-ended questions designed to
provide more personal responses from the superintendents regarding preparation and
training.
Data Analysis
Using descriptive and inferential statistics, the researcher processed the data
from the survey forms by emphasizing the following procedures:
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1. A coding and tabulating system was identified so that percentages and
frequencies of responses could be analyzed.
2. Cross tabulations were made between each of four selected demographic
variables and to each of four levels of response on a four-step Likert-type scale to item
statements reflecting several selected activities, characteristics, or issues associated
with the preparation and training experiences of superintendents. Chi square tests of
the frequencies in contingency tables representing cross classifications were
completed and evaluated for statistical significance o f the degree of association.
3. Responses to the open-ended questions representing perceptions of the
superintendents concerning their training and preparation were recorded by hand and
then categorized. A qualitative description of these findings focused on the
identification of themes that emerged. Attempts were made to analyze these themes in
light of the previous responses on the survey forms in order to validate results
(Maxwell, 19%). Frequencies were computed for each of the 40 areas listed in the
structured-answer section (Part II) relative to the second broad item statement of the
survey form.
Selected Findings
Within the framework of the five research questions, the following major
findings resulted:
1. Concerning the characteristics of training and preparation of
superintendents, 33 of the 40 items concerned with how valuable prior training and
preparation had been in performing the responsibilities associated with the
superintendency were judged to be extremely valuable or very valuable by at least
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75% of the respondents. The seven activities or features in the list receiving a
response of at least 95% for the two just cited response categories (extremely valuable
or very valuable) were (a) board relationships, (b) team building, (c) communication,
(d) organization climate/culture, (e) community relationships, (0 managing change,
and (g) trust building. The criterion of at least 25% of the respondents stating that any
one of the 40 shed features in Table 1 was minimally valuable resulted in not any one
item being chosen.
2. Pertaining to the types of training or preparatory experiences judged to be
most valuable or least valuable within six domains of personal characteristics, only the
alternative of on-the-job experiences within education met the criterion of being a
significant contributor to job performance - percentages of responses to very valuable
or extremely valuable varying between 93 .9% and 97.4%. In the same context, only
four of the 24 possible response alternatives met the criterion (25% or lower) as being
very valuable or extremely valuable of a lack of being a significant contributor to the
job performance of the superintendent. All four alternatives fell within the alternative
of on-the-job experiences within private sector. For the remaining two response
alternatives of (a) university programs and (b) professional organizations, the
respective percentages of checked alternatives falling into the categories of either very
valuable or extremely valuable varied between 29.9 and 63.1 and between 32.8 and
47.0, respectively.
3. Information gathered on the relationship of each of four demographic
variables (size of school district, length of experience as a superintendent, gender, and
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education level) to responses to selected items on the list of 40 activities,
characteristics, or issues in preparatory and training experiences of superintendents
resulted in only 16 of the 160 possible cross classifications yielding statistically
significant degrees of association (jl< OS). Size of school district was significantly
related to (a) home perceptions/attitudes, (b) socioeconomic differences, (c) school
structures/expectations, (d) staff perceptions/attitudes, (e) altruism, and (0 organizing
instruction. Length of experience as superintendent afforded a statistically significant
association with (a) trust building, (b) influencing/motivating, (c) intelligence, and
(d) openmindedness. A statistically reliable relationship occurred between gender and
(a) influencing/motivating, (b) openmindedness, (c) legal issues, (d) non-adversarial
bargaining, and (e) positiveness. Education level provided a statistically significant
correlation only with staffing for instruction.
4. For the first open-ended question dealing with the most valuable aspect of
preparation prior to attaining the position of superintendent, the most frequent
response was that of on-the-job training. In the instance of the second open-ended
question dealing with what type of training/preparation would have helped the
respondent to be better prepared for the superintendency, three fairly evenly chosen
categories emerged: (a) internship/mentoring with a superintendent, (b) board
relationship training, and (c) budget/finance preparation. For the last open-ended
question pertaining to what part of the training/preparation the superintendent
considered to be of least value for subsequent performance on the job, the category of
university coursework received an overwhelming number of endorsements. It is
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noteworthy, however, that almost the same number of superintendents reported that
none of their training/preparation activities could be considered of least value.
S. In relation to open-ended question number 3 dealing with the most
challenging activity throughout his or her career as a superintendent, the category of
board relationships received a significant number of endorsements. The classifications
of union/negotiations activities and change were also endorsed significantly; however,
not so extensively as the category of board relationships. It is interesting to note that
in another open-ended question dealing with what type of training/preparation would
have helped the respondent to be better prepared for the superintendency a response
category of board relationship training again received significant endorsements.
Conclusions
On the basis of statistical outcomes of this investigation, the following
conclusions became evident:
1 . Superintendents find that their training in the area of board relationships has
proven to be the most valuable training that they have received when compared to
other areas of preparation and training programs for superintendents.
2. Superintendents perceive that their experiences within the educational
workplace have been the most significant contributor to their job performance as a
superintendent.
3. Superintendents agree on the one area that should be added to training and
preparation programs: mentoring or internship programs where aspiring
superintendents would be teamed with successful superintendents in a coaching-type
model.
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4. Superintendents perceive that board relationship training as well as more
thorough finance training also need to be updated and that a more hands-on approach
must be considered in training and preparation programs for school district
superintendents.
5. University coursework is seen as having the least value in training and
preparing superintendents.
6. Superintendents identified that the most challenging activity or experience
throughout their career has overwhelmingly been school board relations.
Recommendations
The following recommendations were suggested from the results of the current
study:
1 . Additional follow-up investigations should be carried out dealing with all
the various facets of school board relations in order to understand better how to
provide training and preparation to assist superintendents to be well prepared for this
challenging aspect of their positions.
2. An advanced training model for aspiring superintendents to be placed in an
internship or mentoring-type program with successful superintendents in order to help
them see the real day-to-day issues facing the superintendency should be realistically
developed and implemented.
3. University coursework must consist of more real-life case studies and
hands-on training experiences in order to develop quality training within the courses
of study.
59
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4. Steps should be taken to replicate this study with all superintendents in
California and possibly with a sample of superintendents from within the United
States in an attempt to correlate the results of this study to those of other samples from
the general population of superintendents in order to confirm reliability.
Reflections
Implications for leadership based on the conclusions of this study are of utmost
importance. Superintendents must now, more than ever before, be able to maintain a
healthy balance between the analytical and conceptual or visionary leadership styles.
In order to be successful in today’s changing world, they must be capable of looking
in retrospect at their decisions and their actions and weigh all resulting outcomes in a
fashion that affords them an honest, no-holds-barred look at what type of leader they
have become or are becoming. Superintendents must be able to take responsibility for
their decisions and work toward the continuous improvement of their leadership style
that drives their actions and decisions. The ideal training and preparation program
will include those aspects of leadership training that define the outstanding
superintendent as one who reflects and acknowledges weaknesses and shortcomings
and strives to modify those areas toward an end of continuous improvement.
60
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APPENDIX
SURVEY FORM FOR CALIFORNIA SCHOOL
DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS
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Survey Form for California School District Superintendents
Training and Preparation for School Superintendents
Note to Respondents:
This instrument contains twelve demographic items and nine informational items designed to
provide you with an opportunity to express your opinions of the training you received that
prepared you for the superintendency. The information you provide is confidential and
extremely valuable to this study. Please respond to all items.
Demographics - Part I
Personal
1 . Length of experience as a superintendent:
(1 )first year (2) 2-4 years (3) 5-9 years (4) 10+ years
2. Number of school districts in which you’ve been superintendent:
(1)1-2 (2)3-4 (3)5-6 (4)7+
3. Number of years as the superintendent in your current school district:
(1)1-2 (2)3-4 (3)5-6 (4)7+
4. Number of years you’ve held all positions within your current school district:
(1)1-4 (2)5-9 (3)10-14 (4)15+
5. Ethnicity:
(1) African American (2) Hispanic (3) Caucasian (4) Native American
(5) other____________________
6. Education level:
(1) BA only (2)MAorMS (3) Doctorate in progress (4) Doctorate completed
7. Gender:
(1) Female (2) Male
School District
8. District classification:
(1) Suburban (2) Urban (3) Rural
9. Size of school district (ADA):
(1) 1000-4999 (2) 5000-9999 (3) 10000-15000
10. Percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunch:
(1)1-19% (2)20-39% (3)40-59% (4)60-79% (5)80-100%
11. Population of English Language Learners:
(1)1-19% (2)20-39% (3)40-59% (4)60-79% (5)80-100%
12. Type of school district:
(1) Unified (2) High School (3) Elementary (4) other_____________
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Structured-Answer Questions — Fart II
1 . Please rank, by order of importance, where your most valuable training for the
superintendency has occurred related to the given domain (l=extremelv valuable, 2=very
valuable, 3=somewhat valuable, 4=minimally valuable). Please use each number once.
GENERAL EDUCATION
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
HUMAN RELATIONS
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
PERSONAL CAPABILITIES
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
MULTICULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
university programs
on-the-job experiences within education
professional organizations (ACSA, etc.)
on-the-job experiences within private sector
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2. Directions: For each item below please circle the number that best indicates how you feel
about the value of this area in superintendent training. (!=cxtremely valuable, 2=very
valuable, 3=somewhat valuable, 4=minimally valuable).
technological issues 1234 social/political issues 1234
ethics issues 1234 legal issues 1234
humanistic issues 1234 instructional planning 1234
staffing for instruction 1234 organizing instruction 1234
human resource development 1234 evaluating instruction 1234
strategic/operational planning 1234 board relationships 1234
administrative relationships 1234 communitvrelations 1234
organizational climate/culture 1234 team building 1234
employee evaluation 1234 central office structures 1234
financial resource management 1234 facilities development 1234
communications 1234 influencing/motivating 1234
empathy 1234 conflict management 1234
managing change 1234 empowerment 1234
trust building 1234 wellness 1234
non-adversarial bargaining 1234 intelligence 1234
positiveness 1234 drive, energy, courage 1234
openmindedness 1234 altruism 1234
cross-cultural differences 1234 socioeconomic differences 1234
staff perceptions/attitudes 1234 hom e perceptions/attitudes 1 2 3 4
school structures/expectations 1234 school/community relations 1234
3. From your list of "extremely valuable’ [1] characteristics listed above,
please place a dot [•] next to those areas in which you received minimal
training/preparation before you became a superintendent?
4. From your list of ‘extremely valuable’ [1] characteristics listed above,
please
place a check [^ ] next to those areas in which you received exceptional
training/preparation before you became a superintendent?
5. From those characteristics identified in question 4, where did you receive
this exceptional training/preparation before you became a superintendent?
(please circle one)
(a) university program
(b) on-the-job experiences within education
(c) professional organizational training (ACSA, etc.)
(d) on-the-job experiences within private sector
(e) other (please specify)_______________________
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Open-Ended Questions - Part III
1. What single most effective aspect of your preparation prior to the
superintendency has been die most valuable to you as a practicing
superintendent? Please be specific.
2. What type o f training/preparation would have helped you be better prepared
for the superintendency?
3. Throughout your career as a superintendent what would you consider the
m ost challenging activity of your position?
4. From your experiences as a superintendent, what part o f your
training/preparation would you consider to be of least value?
Thank you for your time. Your participation is greatly appreciated.
Please return this survey by January 29,2001 in the enclosed self-
addressed, stamped envelope.
70
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Asset Metadata

Creator Thurman, Brian John (author)

Core Title Essential elements of superintendent training and preparation programs as indicated by practicing superintendents in the state of California

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, administration,education, adult and continuing,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Michael, William B. (committee chair), Gothold, Stuart (committee member), Picus, Lawrence O. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-165354

Unique identifier UC11328835

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Legacy Identifier 3054815.pdf

Dmrecord 165354

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Thurman, Brian John

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

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