Becoming a Superintendent Challenges of School District Leadership

Rather than asking students to memorize rote recipes for action, this new book enhances students' ability to encounter new situations, assess relevant factors and decide on effective courses of action on their own. It offers valuable vicarious experiences and insights by combining case studies of actual beginning superintendents with analyses by experienced, knowledgeable professors of educational administration.

 1. Beginning Superintendents and the Challenges of Leadership.

 2. The Superintendency: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

 3. Jackie: Big Time Challenges in a Rural District.

 4. Hank: Chief, Coach, Superintendent.

 5. Chad: System Entry Sets the Stage.

 6. Kathleen: Whirlwind Courtship, Passionate Honeymoon, Quick Divorce?

 7. Jeena: Out of the Peace Corps, Into the Fire for an Elected Superintendent.

 8. Eugene and Keith: A Tale of Two Suburbs.

 9. Susan: Charm and Steel Facing a Public Mandate for Urban School Reform.

10. Don: Breaking the Mold by Reading at Dawn.

11. Laura: Providing Focus by Managing Attention and Meaning.

12. Theresa and Marilyn: An Outsider and an Insider.

13. Philbert: Battling Bond Barriers.

14. Mistakes Beginning Superintendents Make.

15. Harsh Realities: Politics, Corruption, and Immorality.

16. Through the Lens of Leadership Theory.

17. The Road to the Superintendency.

Appendix.

Name Index.

Subject Index.