Book Description

The role of a superintendent as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a school district may never have been as perilous as it is currently. The diverse range of issues, which challenges today's superintendent, are broad deep and complex. In this environment, the relationship which a superintendent enjoys with his or her senior leadership team, the cabinet, becomes critically important. Today's superintendent is expectred to perform a number of roles in school districts. Examples of roles are: day-to-day administration, chief financial officer, instructional leader, public relations manager, political advocate, program evaluator, and others. The purpose of this qualitative comparative study was to explore how the nature of the preparation, training and experiences of traditional versus non-traditional superintendents influences the ways in which they establish professional working relationships or effectiveness with their existing administrative cabinet. It further examined the relationship between the two groups of superintendents and their leadership teams before during and up to the date of employment. The inference made from this research is that leaders coming to the position with a prior business background either with business training or as former business officials with business certifications given today's world of diverse skill sets required of district leaders are no more equipped to do a better job and be successful than those superintendents from a traditional academic background. This research found that it did not make a difference whether the superintendent was from a traditional background or a nontraditional background. Participants were asked how a superintendent with a business background articulated academic issues, whether he or she was fluent and well informed. Conversely, they were asked whether a superintendent with an academic background was able to speak with confidence about the business issues facing the school district. The participants felt that it was most important that the superintendent regardless of her or his background, do their homework, be well informed, be visible by visiting schools and classrooms and that they get to know their staff and faculty management by walking around. The superintendents were not particularly concerned about the issue of a traditional versus a non-traditional background. All of these superintendents were looking for competent people whether they themselves were business people or academic people. They just wanted to know that the people in the "trenches" with them were competent, capable and willing to work with them to do whatever it takes to get the job done.