The Contemporary Superintendent: Preparation, Practice, and Development

The role, practice, and preparation of today and tomorrow′s superintendent!

A strong superintendent is critical to the success of an entire school district. So why is it one of the most deregulated positions? Over the past several decades, many states have either rescinded licensing requirements for school district superintendents or abandoned regulations altogether. The Contemporary Superintendent offers a scholarly and objective analysis of the issues surrounding the state policies that appoint superintendents.

Lars G. Björk and Theodore Kowalski have developed a coherent guide to critical professional aspects such as superintendent licensures, professional preparation, and staff development. Featuring the research of educational leadership specialists, this resource is not to be missed!

The Contemporary Superintendent includes:

• Quality strategies by the field′s top scholars to implement decisive practices for superintendents
• Detailed analysis of the concerns over superintendent qualifications and preparations
• An examination of past, present, and future practices of superintendents
• A distinct look at the evolution of the role of the superintendent

Developed over a three-year period, the authors have compiled a collection of useful, hands-on strategies for aspiring and existing superintendents, as well as ideas for adoption in the educational administration, leadership professional development, and educational policy areas.

Dr. Björk is an associate professor in the Department of Administration and Supervision at the University of Kentucky, Co-Director of the University Council for Educational Administration’s Joint Program Center for the Study of the Superintendency, and a Senior Associate Editor of Educational Administration Quarterly. He has co-edited several books including Higher Education Research and Public Policy (1988), Minorities in Higher Education (1994), and The New Superintendency: Advances in Research and Theories of School Management and Educational Policy (2001), co-authored, The Study of the American Superintendency 2000: A Look at the Superintendent of Education in the New Millennium (2000) and The Superintendent as CEO: Standards-Based Performance (in press).

Theodore J. Kowalski, Ph.D., is a former public school teacher, principal, associate superintendent, and superintendent. He has taught at Purdue University and served as professor and director of doctoral programs in educational administration at Saint Louis University. From 1981 to 2000, he was employed at Ball State University, where he was dean of the Teachers College. In 2000, he became the Kuntz Family Endowed Chair in Educational Administration at the University Dayton.

Professor Kowalski is the author of over 180 professional publications, including 27 books. He is the editor of the Journal of School Public Relations, serves on the editorial boards Educational Administration Quarterly and the AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice, and was editor of the 2001 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of School Administrators for his research and books on school administration. He has extensive experience as a planning consultant, speaker, and workshop facilitator. In addition to the superintendency, his primary research interests include organizational behavior, school public relations, and decision theory.