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This investigation was concerned with the relationships between the superintendent of schools, the board of education, and the local teachers' professional organization in Tucson School District One for the period 1941-1978. Because it was the largest school district in the state of Arizona, as well as one of the largest in the United States, School District One may be considered a microcosm of many older school districts throughout the country. Many problems encountered by District One for the first time during the late 1960s and 1970s had been experienced by other large school districts in earlier decades. The relationships between the school board, superintendents, and the local teacher organization moved through three distinct phases in the years covered by this study. The first phase was a period of consensus during the years when Robert D. Morrow was superintendent of the school district. The second phase, under the administration of Morrow's successor, Thomas L. Lee, was one of transition. The harmonious relationships between the superintendent, trustees, and teachers' organization began to become strained. The third phase, under Wilbur Lewis, Lee's successor, was characterized by conflict and ended in a teacher strike in 1978. During the years 1941-1978, the superintendents' relationships with both the school board and the teacher association changed from that of close cooperation to one of increasing hostility. Among the school board members themselves, little effective dissent existed prior to 1972. In that year, the first of two major critics of the school trustees was elected to office. When she was joined on the board in 1975 by the second dissenter, the community realized that the era of cooperation and quiet disagreement was at an end. The local teachers' organization, the Tucson Education Association (TEA), began in 1917 as little more than a social and educational arm of the school district. As the teacher groups nationally became more militant in the 1960s, the TEA developed a more aggressive attitude towards educational and professional conditions in Tucson. In 1978, relationships within the school district had deteriorated to such a degree that two of the most dramatic incidents in the school district's history occurred: the teacher strike in October, and the resignation of the superintendent the following December. Years later, the effects of these two events could still be observed.

Effective relationships among the levels of educational administrators will support the emphasis on academic excellence at national, state, and local levels. Recognizing the factors involved and understanding the interactions of those factors is a complex process. This study examined the bureaucratic leadership style of a superintendent in the organizational structure and the social interaction between the superintendent and campus principals in that organization as perceived by the principals. Quantitative data were collected by using two instruments: (1) the Administration Organi zationa1 Inventory to define the superintendent's bureaucratic leadership style and (2) the Perceived Social Interaction Questionnaire to determine the degree of social interaction between the superintendent and the campus principals. The study included the superintendent and the forty-three principals of a Texas suburban public school. Data analysis examined the leadership style and its relationship to the social interaction and both style and social interaction in relationship to age, sex, elementary or secondary level, and years of experience as a principal. Results of the study did not clearly define the superintendent's leadership style in a bureaucratic organization and indicated no significant difference between the style and social interaction and the four biographical variables. However, analysis of the data revealed that more principals perceived the superintendent as a Professional with a high degree of expertise and low degree of authority when biographical data were considered. Principals who perceived the superintendent as having a high degree of expertise also indicated they had a warm and friendly social relationship with the superintendent. Further analysis revealed that older, male, secondary principals with more than ten years of experience had a warm and friendly social interaction with the superintendent. This study attempted to provide greater knowledge of the organizational structures and the inward workings of a school system so that other administrators might better understand essential factors affecting district decisions and practices

In 2006, the Vermont School Board's Association launched a pilot implementation of Policy Governance® in four Vermont school districts. Policy Governance is a coherent governance model that requires boards to establish policy in four policy quadrants (Carver, 2006). Key features of Policy Governance include the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities between a board and its CEO and the articulation of Ends policies which describe the desired outcomes for the organization from a future-oriented perspective (Carver, 2006). These characteristics of Policy Governance are in many ways antithetical to traditional Vermont public school governance practices which are grounded in a long-standing tradition of local control (Cate, 2006). This study focused on the experiences of the four superintendents involved in the 2006 pilot implementation of Policy Governance in Vermont as they attempted to reconcile the coherence of Policy Governance with local school board practices. The purpose of the study was to understand the beliefs and perceptions of these superintendents about Policy Governance, and to understand to what extent Policy Governance implementation created ethical dilemmas for their leadership. A series of in-depth interviews was conducted with the superintendents, and data from the interviews were analyzed using a narrative inquiry approach. The findings of this study suggest superintendent beliefs and perceptions about Policy Governance can be categorized into three themes: responsibility, trust, and vision. Using a theoretical ethical framework based on the work of Starratt (2003, 2004), a further analysis of the findings suggested a series of ethical dilemmas were confronted by the superintendents when implementing Policy Governance. These dilemmas included: developing an organizational vision through ends policies which transfer control over vision from the superintendent to the school board, assisting school boards with engaging their communities in the development of ends policies while at the same time ensuring those ends meet the moral purposes of schooling in serving the needs of all students and the larger public good, enforcing a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities while also serving a school board in its work, and assuming responsibility for transforming school systems to meet the future needs of students while at the same time supporting the success of students and educators in the current organizational structures. This study concluded that Policy Governance can provide an intellectual and practical framework for educational leaders to engage in the necessary ethical action to ensure the success of public schooling in postmodern society.

The purpose of this study was to determine if practical wisdom can be recognized as one factor that may be attributed to the success of individuals sitting in the position of superintendent in a school district. Practical wisdom is defined as something developed over time through experiences and knowledge. It guides decision making on moral and practical issues. The changing political climate coupled with increased accountability and the increased rate at which superintendents have been retiring, have created the necessity to identify some factors that contribute to a superintendent’s success. This study provides an assessment of practical wisdom in a single case study analyzed through this research of a female superintendent in a medium sized school district.

There are two main portions to this study. In the first portion (Chapters I-III) we identify policies, procedures, programs, and pedagogical practices in public school districts in Texas that increase levels of college preparation among black and Hispanic students across a range of educational settings (rural, suburban, and urban). We identify these practices by interviewing school administrators at twenty-two school districts throughout the state. The school districts were selected by using education production function models to identify the highest and lowest performing school districts on a variety of college preparation measures. The first portion of the study is largely descriptive and qualitative in orientation. In the second portion of the study we identify high college preparation levels among minority students as a positive externality. Because college attendance benefits students as individuals, regardless of the beneficial aspects of college attendance for society at large, students, parents, and others will request that school districts increase college preparation levels to some degree. However, given the nature of positive externalities, we explore the possibility that the reason why some school districts have higher college preparation levels among minority students than others is that they are led by an official policy-maker (the superintendent) who is committed to acting in the long-term interests of society (in other words, whose representational style is to act as a trustee). The second portion attempts to extend the causal chain back one link by exploring the possibility that superintendent representational style affects the types of policies, procedures, programs and pedagogical practices adopted and the district’s commitment to implementing them, which in turn affects college preparation levels among minority students. The relationship between superintendent representational style and minority student preparation for college is tested using two data sources: a survey of public school superintendents throughout Texas gathered by the Texas Educational Excellence Project and college preparation measures gathered by the Texas Education Agency for all public schools in Texas.

Background. The pioneering early experiments of prefrontal lobotomy were performed in 1944 by neurosurgeons in Stockholm in collaboration with psychiatrists. There was a rapid implementation of the new surgical approach. In 1946 and 1947 the two state mental hospitals, Umedalen and Sidsjön, introduced prefrontal lobotomy on a large scale. General surgeons now performed operations, a practice which was established all over Sweden. Prefrontal lobotomy was burdened, in certain city hospitals, by an initially high rate of postoperative mortality reaching more than 15 %. Pre-frontal lobotomy was phased out continuously already before 1950 and refined psychosurgical methods were introduced , but prefrontal lobotomy was still continued which lacked specialised neurosurgical units. The aims of the thesis were to contribute to and deepen the knowledge and understanding of the general and specific questions of early psychosurgery in its professional and social context. Specific aims: (Explore the practice of prefrontal lobotomy at the Umedalen State Mental hospital and plot the frequency of psychosurgery operations in Sweden. • Analyze the patients subjected to prefrontal lobotomy at the Umedalen State Mental Hospital 1947-1958, with respect to symptomatology and diagnosis, indications for the operation, gender distribution postoperative mortality, the practice of consent and other clinical factors. • Explore and analyze what was written on psychosurgery, when and how, and to identify differences, similarities and characteristics of the portrayal of psychosurgery in Swedish and American media 1936-1959. • Explore and analyze the confluence of the role of the State authority, The Swedish National Board of Health (Medicinalstyrelsen), the professional discourses on lobotomy and the media portrayal, in dealing with problems of implementation and mortality. Results. Paper I. At the Umedalen State Mental Hospital, 771 prefrontal lobotomies were performed 1947-1958 with an overall postoperative mortality of 7.4 %. Most of the patients operated on from Umedalen were women (61.2%) and most of the patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Of all the lobotomies performed in Sweden (approx. 4,500), 28% had been carried out at the Sidsjön and Umedalen State Mental Hospitals. Paper II. A sample of 105 patients, who were studied in detail from psychiatric records. It was found that 79% had been six years in primary school and only 3% had a higher education. In an analysis of the descriptions of behavioural problems stated in the medical records, it was found that the female candidate for prefrontal lobotomy was described as suffering from different problems more often than the male candidate. Disturbing behaviour, fluctuations of mood and violence against others were the most frequently described symptoms most often referred to with respect to the female lobotomy candidate. Paper III. In the comparative media study it was found that most of the articles on lobotomy in the Swedish and American media were positive or neutral towards psychosurgery, while very negative articles were least frequent. Neutral articles were more common in Swedish media (43%) while less common in the American media (19%). Articles being very negative towards lobotomy were considerably more often found in the American material (32%) than in the Swedish (14%). Paper IV. The implementation of lobotomy was rapid in Sweden and more than 4000 lobotomies were performed between 1944 and 1964. It was considered feasible for prefrontal lobotomies to be performed by general surgeons and, from 1951, it can be verified that most hospitals (12/20) had engaged general surgeons for the lobotomy operation while a minority (8/20) had engaged a neurosurgeon. The Swedish State, through the Swedish National Board of Health was responsible of the allocation and surveillance of mental care. With a system consisting of a Chief Inspector of Mental Care, State mental hospitals were inspected annually. Medical superintendents were given full autonomy to decide on the implementation and practice of lobotomy. No indications were found of any significant interference by the Swedish National Board of Health restricting lobotomy. Main conclusion. Medical superintendents were given full autonomy to decide on the clinical practice of lobotomy. Being left in the periphery of neurosurgical facilities, this led to their engaging general surgeons. Patients were operated on in surgical theatres lacking the sophisticated technical equipment of coping securely with haemorrhages, which were common in the early implementation of the operation. The practice of lobotomy in some mental hospitals was extensive and postoperative deaths were numerous but the Swedish National Board of Health took a defensive role and, even with the annual inspections, there was no important interference with the lobotomy question. Swedish media reported mostly positively on lobotomy, underlining the promising prospects of the new method submitted by the early proponents without critical questioning or independent investigations. / Kompletteras 2012-09

There are two main portions to this study. In the first portion (Chapters I-III) we identify policies, procedures, programs, and pedagogical practices in public school districts in Texas that increase levels of college preparation among black and Hispanic students across a range of educational settings (rural, suburban, and urban). We identify these practices by interviewing school administrators at twenty-two school districts throughout the state. The school districts were selected by using education production function models to identify the highest and lowest performing school districts on a variety of college preparation measures. The first portion of the study is largely descriptive and qualitative in orientation. In the second portion of the study we identify high college preparation levels among minority students as a positive externality. Because college attendance benefits students as individuals, regardless of the beneficial aspects of college attendance for society at large, students, parents, and others will request that school districts increase college preparation levels to some degree. However, given the nature of positive externalities, we explore the possibility that the reason why some school districts have higher college preparation levels among minority students than others is that they are led by an official policy-maker (the superintendent) who is committed to acting in the long-term interests of society (in other words, whose representational style is to act as a trustee). The second portion attempts to extend the causal chain back one link by exploring the possibility that superintendent representational style affects the types of policies, procedures, programs and pedagogical practices adopted and the district’s commitment to implementing them, which in turn affects college preparation levels among minority students. The relationship between superintendent representational style and minority student preparation for college is tested using two data sources: a survey of public school superintendents throughout Texas gathered by the Texas Educational Excellence Project and college preparation measures gathered by the Texas Education Agency for all public schools in Texas.

The purpose of the study was to identify perceptions of the contributions made by superintendents and architects respectively when programming a new school. Areas of collaboration were determined by a qualitative analysis of the responses of superintendents and architects to questions regarding their perceptions of areas to discuss when collaborating in the designing of a new school. Ninety-four Texas superintendents and forty-six architects participated in the survey. Major research findings from this study addressed the areas of knowledge needed to enhance the collaboration process. Budget is the driving force within the collaboration between superintendents and architects when designing a school. The superintendent is the key communicator in the design process. Architects are the individuals most concerned with using the instructional delivery methods used by teachers to guide the design process. Three main areas to address when designing a school to support student safety are accessibility, surveillance and visibility. Instructional specialists, specifically at the district-level, are often not included as a part of the facilities committee. Superintendents obtain knowledge and the skill to collaborate with architects on a school design process through on-the-job experience. Recommendations are made to further enhance the collaboration. Superintendents and architects need to view budgets as a way to prioritize needs rather than to limit possibilities when designing a school. Superintendents must continue to be aware that they are the lead communicator in the school design process and must continue to work to effectively communicate their district�s and community�s needs, expectations, and vision. Superintendents must be prepared to communicate instructional delivery methods and expectations to architects when designing a school. Superintendents and architects need to consider accessibility, camera surveillance, and visibility when designing a school to support student safety. Facilities committees should include district level curriculum experts as part of the school design process, as these individuals are knowledgeable of the district�s instructional vision. It is important for superintendents who are designing a school project to have prior experience in participating in the design process, or to collaborate with other superintendents with experience to guide and assist them in the process.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-117). Also available on the Internet.