Contemporary Superintendent

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.

• PrefaceAbout the EditorsAbout the Contributors1. Evolution of the School District Superintendent Position by Theodore J. Kowalski2. Characteristics of American School Superintendents by Lars G. Björk, Thomas E. Glass, and C. Cryss Brunner3. National Education Reform Reports: Implications for Professional Preparation and Development by Lars G. Björk, Theodore J. Kowalski, and Michelle D. Young4. Learning Theory and Research: A Framework for Changing Superintendent Preparation and Development by Lars G. Björk, Theodore J. Kowalski, and Tricia Browne-Ferrigno5. The Superintendent as Instructional Leader: Current Practice, Future Conceptualizations, and Implications for Preparation by George J. Petersen and Bruce G. Barnett6. Superintendent as Organizational Manager by Tricia Browne-Ferrigno and Thomas E. Glass7. Superintendent as Educational Statesman and Political Strategist by Lars G. Björk and D. Keith Gurley8. Reconceptualizing the Superintendency: Superintendents as Applied Social Scientists and Social Activists by Bonnie C. Fusarelli and Lance D. Fusarelli9. Preparing Superintendents to Be Effective Communicators by Theodore J. Kowalski and John L. Keedy10. Women Superintendents and Role Conception: (Un)Troubling the Norms by Margaret Grogan and C. Cryss Brunner11. Superintendents of Color: Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Implications for Professional Preparation and Practice by Juanita Cleaver SimmonsIndex

"Bjork and Kowalski have assembled a dozen contributors in this coherent guide that examines critical aspects of professional preparation, licensing and continuing development and the evolution of the role of the superintendent. If, as the editors state, a primary objective of the book is to "enlighten decisions that affect the preparation and licensing of school superintendents," that goal is realized and exceeded."