School superintendents of today must balance leadership skills, political skills, instructional skills, and people skills. They are at the forefront of the school district and are the most public personification of the district. They are encumbered with and often held accountable for student achievement, ensuring that all faculty and staff are accountable in their respective areas, and fostering and many times creating a culture that must meet the needs of all of their constituents. Research suggests that being a visible presence in the school district is one way for school superintendents to gauge the effectiveness of the district. Given the complexity of the job, school superintendents must utilize every available moment to ensure that the work of the school district is done in an efficient and effective manner. The successful school superintendent will find ways to be a visible presence in the school district and in the community, thus enabling him to have first-hand knowledge about the actions of the varying constituents in the school district as well as providing opportunities for him to have a positive impact on those actions. This treatise utilizes case study design to analyze the actions of a superintendent in one suburban school district. From the analysis of interviews, documents, and interactions, certain themes emerged. This study suggests that superintendents maintaining a visible presence in the district and in the surrounding community have a positive effect on the studied areas of student achievement, staff accountability, and organizational culture. Additionally, the study analyzed and documented specific behaviors which enable the superintendent to actualize a visible presence in the school district. / text

This study examined the similarities and differences in the adolescent monozygotic (MZ) twin and same-sex dyzygotic (DZss) twin sibling relationship. Specific constructs investigated were: companionship, empathy, directiveness/teaching, avoidance, rivalry, and aggression. Participants included 192 same-sex twin pairs, age 9 - 18, and their biological parents. The data is part of a national study from the Non-Shared Environment in Adolescent Development Project. The nationally representative data set provided a measure of the Sibling Inventory of Behavior - Expanded Version (Anderson & Rice, 1999), whereby each participant individually responded to the paper-pencil questionnaire. Twinship status differences, gender differences, reporter differences and reporter by twinship interactions were examined. The results found significant differences between MZ twins and DZss twins on the constructs of empathy, companionship, avoidance, rivalry, and aggression. MZ twins demonstrated and reported higher levels of empathy and companionship and lower levels of avoidance, rivalry, and aggression, when compared to DZss twins. There was no interaction effect of twinship by gender, except on directiveness/teaching; however, significant differences were found between male MZ/DZss twins and female MZ/DZss twins on the constructs of empathy, companionship, directiveness/teaching, and avoidance. Female MZ/DZ twins reported and demonstrated higher levels of empathy, companionship, and directiveness/teaching, and lower levels of avoidance. Overall, there were no reporter differences between twins on any of the six constructs. There were significant differences between parental perceptions and twin perceptions on empathy, companionship, directiveness/teaching, rivalry and aggression. A significant difference between mothers and fathers was found on the constructs of empathy and avoidance. On the construct of avoidance, mothers and fathers differed from each other, however, fathers did not differ from the twins. There was no twinship by reporter interaction effect, except on directiveness/teaching. Overall, the results suggest that MZ twins report and are perceived as having a more positive relationship than DZss twins. The results also support the need for multireporter research in order to obtain a truer picture of the family relationship. The gender findings further extend the understanding of the role of gender in the sibling relationship. Lastly, due to the paucity of twin research, the results aid in the development of a framework for understanding the adolescent twin relationship.

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published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Doctor of Medicine

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Philosophy