Lucinda Sanders

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This is a study of a group of women “on their own terms.” These women have unequivocally asserted their ambition to seek the most powerful district-level position in public school leadership. In doing so, they have committed precious time, money, and energy into participating in specially designed preparation programs in the belief that these programs will further that ambition.

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1. What are the assumptions held by the women in these special superintendent preparation programs about accessing the position of superintendent?

2. What meaning do these women ascribe to their own professional experiences, particularly in the context of their current intention to secure a superintendency?

3. How do these women conceptualize the superintendency and how do they characterize their own leadership qualities in relationship to that position?

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4. What were their expectations upon entering the Women’s Superintendent Initiative (WSI) or the Mentoring Minorities Superintendents Program (MMSP)? In what ways were these expectations met? Not met? Changed because of their involvement with the program?

5. To what extent, if at all, these women and their experiences are consistent with what the literature tells us and how, if at all, they and their experiences might deepen our understanding of women and the superintendency?

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Documenting the absence of womenResearch on women who have been

administratorsWomen who are disadvantaged or

subordinateWomen studies in their own termsWomen as challenge to theoryTransformation of theory

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Fourteen female educators with superintendent certification spent 2003-2004 as members of the Women’s Superintendents Initiative (WSI), a yearlong program sponsored by an Educational Cooperative in a southeastern state. I also drew upon participants in an entirely separate program that focused on advancing minority candidates to the position of superintendent. This one-year, mentoring/networking program is called Mentoring Minority Superintendents Program (MMSP).

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to discover meaning and understanding, rather than to verify truth or predict outcomes.

to achieve an understanding of how these women thought about their participation in these programs.

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Pre-existing data from WSI came in the form of written materials submitted by program applicants and taped interviews conducted by the administrators of WSI as part of their application process.

Using data set 1 (application materials), my notes from the WSI interviews (data set 2), and my initial research questions, I designed a survey in order to frame the questions for the interviews which were to follow.

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Based upon both the survey responses and the analysis of the pre-existing data, I developed a two-stage interview protocol.

In the first round, I interviewed 9 WSI participants and 2 MMSP participants.

In the second round of interviews I selected 2 informants from each of two states and one from the third state. This second group also had considerable differences in age and experience.

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I began a descriptive coding process with the 13 interviews conducted by the WSI.

I continued this same descriptive coding process with the round 1 and round 2 interviews arriving at 93 descriptive codes.

I developed a document called “Emergent Categories” and assigned a different color to each category.

I then developed 75-page, color-coded document (“Categories, Patterns, and Themes”) organizing these quotes under the umbrella of seven categories.

I included a reference list that clearly shows the participant, data set, and transcript page number for every quotation.

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1. lack of clear career goals 2. the “other” (social norms and

stereotypes) 3. anti-feminism 4. integrity/ethics 5. networks and mentors 6. discrimination and prejudice and 7. unique leadership attributes

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Triangulation was used to construct believable, credible, and trustworthy accounts of the participants’ perceptions. The different perspectives of the participants, the accounts of the two program directors, the analysis of the pre-existing data and survey responses provided multiple sources of data and multiple perceptions to produce a plausible explanation for how these aspirants constructed their understandings.

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Women’s Superintendent Initiative (WSI): funded by a national philanthropic organization. Goal: to prepare female educators for the role

of superintendent. Mentoring Minority Superintendents

Program (MMSP): established by a state department of education. Goal: to identify and train a pool of highly

qualified, minority candidates for the superintendent of school districts in one state.

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Name Current Position

Age/ Range

Race/Ethnicity

Classroom Experience

DistrictSize

Highest Degree

Elizabeth Assistant Superintendent

Mid-40s

White 12 years 1,900 Ed. D

Paula AssistantSuperintendent

Mid 40s

White 11 years 4,990 MA

Sharon HS Principal Mid 30s

White 2 years 1,500 MS

Virginia HS Principal Mid 40s

AfricanAmerican

11 years 95,000 MED

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Name Current Position

AgeRange

Race/Ethnicity

ClassroomExperience

District Size

HighestDegree

Allison Director (CO) Mid 30s white 10 years 6,500 MA

Joan Supervisor (CO) Mid 30s white 6 years 10,000 Ed. D

Kate MS Principal Early 50s white 12 years 10,000 Ed. S

Karen State Dept. Mid 30s white 10 years (state) MA

Kim Supervisor (CO) Mid 40s Af. American

10 years 8,100 MA

Lea Supervisor (CO) Mid 30s Af. American

2 ½ years 8,000 MA

Margo Supervisor (CO) Early 60s white 5 years 1,300 Ed. D

Rhonda State Depart. Mid 50s white 22 years (state) MA

Sonia MS Principal Mid 50s Af. American

16 years 3,600 Ed. D

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Susan and Theresa, stood out among all the others in their drive and determination to become superintendents. They spoke at such length and with so much enthusiasm, that their stories became a complete portrait. If “it’s going to happen” these are the women who are trained, available, and positioned to make it happen.

They make up what Brunner (1999) refers to as “the greatest untapped pool of candidates for the position of superintendent of schools.”

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The profile of these women aspiring to the superintendency matches up in many ways to the women who currently are superintendents.

This group of aspirants differs in one way from current women superintendents. Women superintendents are more often than men to jump from the classroom directly into a Central Office position, first as instructional coordinators, with the principal position the second most often (86).

Only four of these aspirants’ first positions was as a coordinator (resource teacher; instructional consultant, etc). Six of the other women’s first position was as an assistant principal, and one began her administrative career as an elementary principal.

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Ethical conductAdvocacy for childrenCollaboration InclusionConsensus building

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They ranked communication and listening skills as the most important competencies a superintendent should have.

Leadership and knowledge of curriculum, instruction and assessment were second.

Other competencies mentioned were political savvy, integrity and honesty, being a team player, and interpersonal skills.

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“I don’t think we slowed them down any. I think we gave some better insight into the position and all of the nuances in to the superintendency. And I think that two or three decided that it was not for them” [emphasis added].

(Gillian WSI Director)

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In coming to this decision, most of these women were hurt by the absence of mentors and professional networks.

Most of them had spent their lives in education, with literally no career planning.

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Issues of preference (rejection by hiring authorities, and anti-feminism); prejudice (discrimination and stereotyping); and perception (social norms and being the “other”) emerged.

In the 3 years that have elapsed since the conclusion of these programs, not a single one of them has been hired as a superintendent.

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Women do aspire to be superintendents.

Women have not been considered seriously for the position.

They have not been encouraged to think of it as a career goal.

This lack of encouragement and lack of professional and personal networks and mentors has resulted in a deep ambivalence on the part of these women about seeking the position.

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Why was it necessary to create “special” preparation programs for women and not for men?

Why were the women so quick to believe that they needed what was being offered?

Why are traditional preparation programs sufficient for men but not for women?

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How do we account for the anomaly of women who really are going after the position but fail to achieve it?

How many other women are attempting to advance to the superintendency and are failing to do so?

What accounts for the success of the current women superintendents, on the one hand, and the failure of the WSI and MMSP candidates on the other?