Abstract
The Problem. Board members' expectations and perceptions of the superintendent's role have been of great interest to superintendents of small school districts. Problem: What were the opinions of the board members in selected administrative areas? Purpose of the Study. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of the California small school district superintendent as expected and perceived by the superintendent and school board members. If there was differences, were they related to such characteristics as size of district and average number of hours worked each week by the superintendent. Methodology. A panel of school board members and superintendents field tested a list of administrative behaviors in nine categories. Then, a three part survey identified the expected and perceived superintendent's behavior by the school board members and superintendents; the expected and perceived average number of hours worked each week by the superintendent; and, the size of district represented by the respondent. A random sample of 263 school districts were drawn from a possible 618 small school districts. Surveys were mailed to 789 superintendents and school board members. Data gathered by the questionnaires were summarized on the computer for analysis by the SPSS package. Findings. The data were subjected to analysis of variance to determine the differences among superintendents' and school board members' expected and perceived role of the superintendent. Differences were tested for significance at the .05 level. Significant differences were found in pupil personnel, staff personnel, average number of hours worked each week, and financial administration. Conclusions and Recommendations. With few exceptions no significant differences were found among the opinions of the superintendent-board members and was generally contrary to the expectations of this study. Recommendations included the following: (1) Another statistical study should be undertaken in future years. Such a study could show any significant changes in the expected and perceived role of the superintendent. (2) The school board members, with the superintendent, should examine the administrator's job description. Then, develop an evaluation instrument based on their current expectations and perceptions of the superintendent's role.