A growing number of traditional school boards and city mayors are looking for
the next generation of school superintendents to come prepared with a variety of
professional backgrounds to provide instructional leadership for school districts. The
primary purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and describe the experiences,
of five urban non-traditional superintendents. Associated research methods, namely
interviews with study participants and the identification of major themes emerging from
the data, were employed. Six emergent themes were revealed, including change agent,
accountability, political connection/clout, school reform, student achievement and
excellent leadership. Profiles of the participants were offered to provide a context for
the results of this study.
In relation to the major themes, these participants believed that their backgrounds
in corporate worlds and other professions uniquely prepared them for the increased
challenges of today’s school superintendency. They all indicated that they assumed the
helms in their respective school systems for altruistic reasons. However, once on the
job, the participants noted that they suffered personally and professionally. They found
themselves victims of little respect from the community, media and from their own governing bodies. In terms of preparation for the job, the non-traditional
superintendents practiced self-study through reading leadership and journal articles and
by attending conferences. The participants also experienced different challenges in
gaining certification for the superintendency due to disparate state regulations governing
licensure.
Several recommendations resulted from the findings of this study. Since
academic performance is the primary indicator of success or failure in education today,
future researchers in this area might consider a quantitative analysis of student
achievement in districts led by non-traditional superintendents compared to academic
performance in those systems led by their traditional counterparts. In addition, it is
suggested that these participants’ views on superintendent preparation and certification
and on governance issues may be considered by school districts, state and federal
agencies and by universities as they develop future policy and programs. Other
recommendations addressed the need to study female non-traditional superintendent
governance and non-traditional leaders in smaller school districts as it relates to these
issues.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2702 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Sanchez, Maria Severita |
| Contributors | Webb-Johnson, Gwendolyn |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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