Date of Award

1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Media Technology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the link between administrative preparation programs and actual superintendent responsibilities in public school corporations of Indiana. A survey was developed to solicit superintendents' perceptions of the actual time allocated to twenty-two academic skill areas commonly found as course offerings in departments of educational administration. All public school superintendents in Indiana serving in metropolitan, urban, suburban, town, and rural classifications were requested to react to perceptions regarding the most important administrative management skill areas, instructional leadership skill areas, and educational research training experiences. Superintendents also were classified according to years of experience. All public school corporation superintendents in Indiana were asked to participate in this study. The return rate of the surveys was 220 out of 292 public school superintendents, or 75.3 percent. Data were analyzed utilizing the two-way analysis of variance, point biserial correlation, and chi square at the.05 level of significance. Significant differences were found among the size of the school corporation with regard to the instructional leadership mean scores. No significant difference was found related to the instructional leadership mean scores and years of experience as superintendent. No significant difference was found related to the perception of the most important skill areas compared to years of experience served as a superintendent. Virtually no significant relationship was found between educational research competence and training. The findings of the study appeared to support evidence that differences existed in superintendents' perceptions regarding the allocation of time to instructional leadership areas. These differences were found to be in relation to demographic classifications of Indiana school corporations.

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