In recent years, almost all major changes and innovations in education have come out of suburban or urban schools, suggesting that rural schools are more resistant to change. The Myers-Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI) was completed by 86 school administrators to examine the extent to which the psychological traits of rural administrators might…

Six schools in an urban school system with varying socioeconomic backgrounds were evaluated to determine what impact different instructional leadership styles have on student achievement. Since the principal is usually considered the instructional leader, the study focused on principal leadership styles, with principals categorized into three main…

This exploratory study investigated which characteristics of a principal are identified as effective by teachers in the same school setting. The data were obtained from the Schools and Staffing Study of 1988, from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The Teacher Questionnaire of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) questioned…

A study examined the impact of gender on administrative decision making. Do males and females make different decisions? The study tested 56 practicing and aspiring administrators in a graduate program. Of these, 36 were women and 20 were men. The study presented the participants with 15 scenarios often encountered by school administrators. The…

From a sample of over 1,000 advertisements for school superintendent positions, this study compiles a list of qualifications and tasks required of most superintendents and indicates the trends in school board expectations of superintendents. The author first notes the degree of education preferred by school boards in their superintendents and then…

The author challenges National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) criteria for professional certification and outlines basic competencies on which qualifications should be based for all financial aid professionals and for directors and assistant directors. (JT)

A clear understanding of the definition and aim of management ca provide a standard for measuring the performance of a manager. Managerial training programs must recognize each manager as a unique individual and focus on the importance of on-the-job performance as the only valid measure of managerial capability. (MW)

This article examines the current context, challenges, and issues for school leaders and their development in the United States. Current debates about who should lead, what capacities they should have, and how they are best prepared to lead are reviewed. Using several recent studies of the principalship and learning-centered leadership, the author…

The role of the English department chair was studied through a national survey of departments in universities with student enrollments between 5,000 and 12,000. Attention was directed to: academic rank, length of term, how selected, number of teachers in the department, salary, fringe benefits, teaching load, and duties. Of the 150 questionnaires…

Because of their visibility at the center stage of community life, small-town superintendents have a greater opportunity to act as participatory managers and instructional leaders. This paper reports the results of surveys with 25 small-town school superintendents to discover rural/urban differences, work patterns, and exemplary practices in…

The contributions of personal qualities and role behavior to the leadership of college presidents are discussed. Managerial leadership might be viewed as a developmental process, whereby different personal qualities and role behaviors are important to leader identification, selection, and evaluation. When individuals are first identified as…

This monograph critiques the literature on organizational and educational leadership, asserting that traditional approaches are unsatisfactory in their own right and within the existing positivist-functionalist paradigm. After outlining problems in defining leadership, the paper critically examines the "trait" approach, particularly…

As part of a larger study of the efficacy of the local boards of trustees for California's community colleges, the chief executive officer (CEO) of each community college district was surveyed to determine what proportion of the more than 400 board members in the state were women, what the current or recent vocations of the board members were, and…

For the past five years, researchers at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education have studied the role of school principals and other educational leaders in facilitating school improvement. Through this research, much has been learned about the school improvement process and what facilitators do on a daily basis to bring about…

The overrepresentation of men in educational administration may be a result of inappropriate attempts to replicate in education the organizational structures of noneducational enterprises rather than a result of women's interests in or capabilities for administration. This paper opens with a description of the "critical theory" of educational…