The purpose of this study was to ascertain how school board members and superintendents in Arizona view their own and each other's role and function in the organization and operation of school systems. A second objective was to determine whether the demographic factor of school district locale (urban or rural) contributes to school boards' and superintendents' perceptions. In Arizona, the rights, responsibilities and discretionary powers to act are all given to local school boards. There is no mention of local superintendents' powers or duties in the Arizona State Statutes. This failure to grant statutory power to the superintendents or to formulate district-level policies for the delineation of duties and responsibilities between the school board and the superintendent has frequently led to conflict in district operation. Sixty-five districts were chosen using stratified random sampling from among all the urban and rural districts in Arizona. The Administrative Role Perception Questionnaire was sent to one board member and to the superintendent in each of the 65 districts. The questionnaire contained 22 items representing seven Task Areas: Curriculum Development, Pupil Services, Teaching Materials, Personnel Administration, School Plant Management, Finance and Budget, and Public Relations. The data were analyzed using a series of t-tests. There was substantial disagreement between board members and superintendents on their role and function in the school system. Board members and superintendents differed significantly on Personnel Administration (p<.01), Curriculum Development (p<.03), Teaching Materials (p<.008), Finance and Budget (p<.05), and Public Relations (p<.002). The widest disagreement in perception of the role and function of school boards and superintendents was found between rural board members and rural superintendents. The widest agreement in perception was found between urban and rural board members and between urban and rural superintendents. This would indicate that board members from both urban and rural areas tend to agree more with each other than they do with superintendents. Superintendents from urban and rural areas also tend to agree more with each other than they do with board members. This study has shown that there is still substantial disagreement between boards of education and superintendents. The disagreement indicates an absence of district policies delineating the duties and responsibilities between boards of education and superintendents. Where such policies do exist, they are apparently widely disregarded. The result is the inability of board members and superintendents either to fully understand or to be allowed to discharge their respective roles and functions within the school system. This study recommends that boards of education and superintendents work to define their respective roles in written policy statements which are as broad as possible and cover every major aspect of school district governance and operation. Boards of education and superintendents should work to enact state laws which delineate the duties of the board of education and those of the superintendent. Boards of education should provide adequate funds annually for school board member and superintendent in-service training designed to facilitate understanding and agreement between board members and superintendents. It is also recommended that boards of education offer their superintendents contracts containing policy statements defining respective roles and allowing for redress if a violation occurs. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage school districts to formulate policies for the delineation of duties and responsibilities between the board of education and the superintendent.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1980. / Title from title page screen, viewed Mar. 1, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Ned Lovell (chair), John McCarthy, Charles Sherman, David Eaton, Ben Hubbard. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-92) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-229).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-135).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 6, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth T. Lugg, Paul J. Baker (co-chairs), Dianne E. Ashby, Mike Szymczuk. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-156) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.Leadership)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-139) Also available via the World Wide Web.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Statement of Problem: This research project was designed to study the policies and procedures used in the Commonwealth of Virginia to evaluate the public school superintendents from the perspective of the School Board chairperson. Specifically, the purposes of the study were: (1) to collect and summarize information describing the superintendent's evaluation policies, procedures and instruments utilized in Virginia Public Schools; (2) to compare existing policies and procedures in Virginia public schools for evaluating the superintendent of schools with those in the literature considered "best practice," (3) to determine if Virginia School Superintendent evaluation policies and procedures vary based on selected variables such as: size of school district, wealth of school district, and the gender of the school board's chairperson. / Ed. D.

The major purpose of this study was to study the perceptions and expectations of school board members regarding turnover in the superintendency of the public school systems. Data were gathered regarding the frequency of superintendency turnover and compared to board turnover. The study sought to collect data concerning board satisfaction with the superintendent, priority issues the board expected the superintendent to address, the kind of experience board members preferred in their superintendent, the ideal length of superintendency tenure, and at what point school board members think that a superintendent's contract should be terminated. These data were then crosstabbed with selected demographic variables. Descriptive research methodology was utilized in this study. A nationwide sample of school board members was identified from a list of 53,247 board members provided by the National School Boards Association. The study was completed using a stratified random sampling technique by state. Of the 94,716 board members in the population, 11,992 or 12.6% were surveyed. The response rate was 18%. The study was sponsored by The American School Board Journal, published by the National School Boards Association, the national professional organization for school board members in the United States. / Ed. D.

This chapter has presented descriptions of the demographic characteristics of school board and superintendent respondents. Included in those descriptions were reports of several national demographics for comparisons with this study. Also included in this chapter were reports of the findings with respect to each research question. The method of analysis and summary of the findings described by category, first, and important issues, second, was the arrangement used in reporting the findings. / Ed. D.