Dr. Gary D. Bates, PhD Dissertation Defense, Dissertation Committee Member, Dr. William Allan...

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AN ANALYSIS OF

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THEPUBLIC SCHOOLSUPERINTENDENCY

A Dissertation DefenseBy Gary D. BatesCommittee: William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

Ben C. DeSpain, EdDDouglas Hermond, PhD

David Herrington, PhDCamille Gibson, PhD

PhD Program in Educational LeadershipPrairie View A&M UniversityFebruary 2007



I. Purpose of StudyII. Significance of the Study

III. Quantitative Research Questions

IV. Quantitative Research Design

V. Quantitative Major Findings &Review of Literature

VI. Qualitative Research Questions

VII. Qualitative Research Design

VIII. Qualitative Major FindingsIX. Conclusions

X. Recommendations

Dissertation Defense Format



Purpose of the Study

The primary purpose of this investigation was tostudy what factors

contributed to an AfricanAmerican becoming aschool superintendentand retaining that

position.



Purpose of the Study (Cont.)

This study also sought todiscern whether AfricanAmerican superintendents

perceive race as a barrierin obtaining thesuperintendency.




A secondary purpose of thisstudy was to discover if thereis a difference in perceptionsbetween African Americansuperintendents,superintendents whoparticipated in the 2000AASA study, and African

American superintendentsthat participated in Williams’study of 1984.




The third purpose of thisstudy was to create aprofile of a successful

African American schoolsuperintendent to assistpotential AfricanAmerican superintendents

in their endeavor of becoming a leader ineducation.



Significance of the Study

This study describedaspects of the AfricanAmerican school

superintendency frompast to present and addsto the limited but growingbody of research

concerning AfricanAmerican schoolsuperintendents.



Quantitative Data



Research Questions

Quantitative

1. What are the personalcharacteristics of

currently employedAfrican American schoolsuperintendents?



Research Questions

Quantitative

2. Is there a significantdifference in the

frequencies of the top fiveranked factors that inhibiteffectiveness of allsuperintendents in the2000 AASA study and theresponses of AfricanAmerican superintendentsin 2006?



Null Hypothesis

H01-There will be nostatistically significantdifference in thefrequencies of the top fiveranked factors that inhibiteffectiveness of allsuperintendents in the 2000

AASA study and theresponses of AfricanAmerican superintendentsin 2006.



Research Questions

Quantitative

3. Is there a significantdifference in thefrequencies of the factorsencountered en route tothe superintendency byAfrican Americansuperintendents in the

early 1980’s and AfricanAmerican superintendentsin 2006?



Null Hypothesis

H02 -There will be no statistical

significant difference in thefrequencies of the factors

encountered en route to thesuperintendency by AfricanAmerican superintendentsin early 1980’s and African

American superintendentsin 2006.



Research Design

QuantitativeInstrument

Survey-Three Question

Types– Ranking

– Likert Type

– Descriptive/Explanatory



Research DesignQuantitative Pilot Study - Survey

A pilot study was conducted usingsimple random sample of size30.

The pilot participants were not apart of the actual study.

An item analysis was applied onthe data and a Cronbach’s alphacoefficient of .84 was obtained.



Research Design

Quantitative Survey

Target Population

– African American Public SchoolSuperintendents

– 50 States

Sample

– Simple Random Sample– 61 Participants

– Return rate of 37%



Research Design

Descriptive Statistics

Demographics

– Age

– Gender– Educational details

– Yrs Experience

– Career details

– Ethnicity of students



Research DesignHypothesis Stat Method Ind. Variable Dep. Variable

H01Chi-Square significance of

each challengefrequency

H02Chi-Square factors

encountered enroute

frequency

Factor for Both Tests: Year of Study



Major FindingsResearch Question 1

Quantitative

What are the personal characteristics of currently employed African

American school superintendents?

• 67.2% (n=41) male and

32.8% (n=20) female

• Median age was in the 55–59 group




Quantitative

• 0% (n=0) bachelors degree

14.8% (n=9) masters degree

16.4% (n=10) working on doctoralcoursework

68.8% (n=42) doctorate

• Employed as a superintendent -

mean of 5.29 years• 61.1% (n=36) districts lead by the

sample have a majority (over 50%) of black students



Research Question 1 LiteratureReview

QuantitativeWilliams (1984) found that AfricanAmerican superintendents typicallyhad an African American populationslightly over 70% of the total

district enrollment.In 2000, the average respondent had

served an average of 8.75 years assuperintendent according to theAmerican Association of School

Administrators 2000 study (Glass etal. 2000). Williams (1984) foundthat Black superintendents servedan average of 5.8 years.




Quantitative• Superintendents that held adoctorate degree comprised 45% of all superintendents (Glass et al.2000).

• In 1984, Williams (1984) found that62.7% of African Americansuperintendents held a doctoratedegree.

• 2000 study, Glass reported that themedian age group was 51-55 (Glass

et al. 2000).• Williams (1984) found that the

median age group was 45-49.




Quantitative The 2000 American Association of School Administrators studyreported that malesuperintendents comprised 86.8%of the respondents while 13.2%were female (Glass et al. 2000).

Williams (1984) found in 1984 that88.5% of his respondents weremale while 11.5% were female.




Quantitative

Is there a statistically significantdifference in the frequencies

of the top five ranked factorsthat inhibit effectiveness of allsuperintendents in the 2000AASA study and the responses

of African Americansuperintendents in 2006?




H01 There will be no statisticallysignificant difference between

the frequencies of the top fiveranked factors that inhibited

effectiveness between allsuperintendents in the 2000 AASA

study and the responses of African American superintendentsin 2006.




Quantitative

Respondents were asked to rank18 factors that inhibit

effectiveness in order of importance.

After completing a Chi Square itwas found that the null

hypothesis was rejected basedon an alpha of p ≤ .05.




Quantitative

The top five ranked factors in 2006were:

1. Accountability/Creditability2. Compliance with State and

Federal Mandates

3. Assessing Education Outcomes

4. Financing Schools

5. Teacher Recruitment/Selection




Quantitative

Is there a statisticallysignificant difference

between the frequencies of the factors encountered enroute to the superintendencyby African American

superintendents in early1980’s and African Americansuperintendents in 2006?




H02 There will be nostatistically significantdifference between the

frequencies of the factorsencountered en route to thesuperintendency by AfricanAmerican superintendents in

the early 1980’s and AfricanAmerican superintendents in2006.




Quantitative

African American public schoolsuperintendents were given alist of 16 factors encountered enroute to the superintendency torate on a Likert-type scale from

1 – 4 (1 meaning none to 4meaning great).

These frequencies were comparedwith the 1984 data.




Quantitative

Eight out of sixteen of theidentified factors encountered

en route to thesuperintendency had asignificance of p<.05, thusrejecting H02.




Quantitative

In 13 out 16 cases, thepercentages of the factors

affecting them decreased.

The findings show that thefeelings of the African Americansuperintendents have changedsignificantly from 1984.



Qualitative Data



Research Questions

Qualitative

1. What are the problems inleading a school district

identified by AfricanAmerican schoolsuperintendents? Is racea factor?



Research Questions

Qualitative

2. What are the barriers tocareer advancement for

African Americans in thesuperintendency?



Research Questions

Qualitative

3. What qualities orcharacteristics are vital

to the success of anAfrican American schoolsuperintendent?



Research Design – Qualitative

Interviews

Target Population

– African American Public

School Superintendents– 50 States

Sample

– Simple Random Sample– 28 Participants



Research Design - Qualitative

Interviews

Pilot Study

The interview questions and guidedconversation approach was pilotedto establish that the questions wereclearly worded and for theinterviewer to practice thetechniques of the interview process.A pilot study was conducted using 5African American superintendents.



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative

1. What would you define as thechallenges public schoolsuperintendents face,

particularly the ones of AfricanAmerican descent? In youropinion do all superintendentsface these issues? In your

opinion do you believe thatrace plays a major role inthese issues?



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative 2. What qualities or

characteristics do you thinka successful AfricanAmerican superintendentshould possess? Would yousay that these traits areneeded by allsuperintendents? What

traits would be mostimportant for AfricanAmerican superintendents?



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative 3. Describe the type of

networking that occurs in yourstate that assists in theadvancement of

superintendents? Does thisnetwork assist AfricanAmerican superintendents? Doyou believe that there is aneed for an upward mobility

network to assist AfricanAmericans in becomingsuperintendents?



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative 4. What is the ethnic breakdown of

your district? If the majoritypopulation is African American, isworking in this district your

choice? If you had the choice of working in a district comprised of a majority African Americanpopulation or a more diversepopulation which would youchoose? Why?



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative 5. What advice were you

given as a first yearsuperintendent that helpedyou the most?



Research Design

Interview – Qualitative 6. What advice would you

give a first yearsuperintendent?



Research Design

Data Analysis – Qualitative• Emergent category

designation

• Peer Debriefing• Triangulation



Research Design

Emergent category designation involves taking the data andsorting them into categories of

ideas. This allows themes of ideas to exist intuitively basedon the data given. Qualitativedata coded accordingly to

common themes wereanalyzed for recurring andemergent themes.



Major Findings

Research Question 4Qualitative

What are the problems in leading aschool district identified by AfricanAmerican school superintendents?

Is race a factor?




Qualitative

Emergent themes regarding thechallenges facing public school

superintendents, particularlythe ones of African Americandescent were funding,accountability, achievement

gaps, low social economicstatus, low perception, andchallenging districts.




Qualitative

A majority of African Americansuperintendents thought that

race plays a role but it takes abackseat to the role of theeconomic status of theirstudents.




Qualitative

What are the barriers to careeradvancement for African

Americans in thesuperintendency?




Qualitative

One major barrier to careeradvancement is considered to

be the lack of upward mobilityassociations forsuperintendents in generalbut especially for African

American public schoolsuperintendents.




Qualitative

The main barrier for many AfricanAmerican public school

superintendents was the lack of available districts to which theyfelt were open for them toapply.




Qualitative

What qualities or characteristicsare vital to the success of an

African Americansuperintendent?




Qualitative

Emergent themes regardingqualities or characteristics that asuccessful African American

superintendent should possesswere integrity, curriculum andinstruction, communication,politics, working with people,

personable, financial knowledge,leadership, statistics/research,and passion.



Recommendations

• A formal organization beestablished in each state toassist African Americansspecifically in the pursuit of

the superintendency.• A formal organization be

established nationally bydistrict demographics for all

superintendents to gainmultiple perspectives oneducational and social issues.



Recommendations

• For African Americans in thepursuit of the superintendency,create relationships with otherAfrican American

administrators and possiblyfind a mentor that is currentlyan African Americansuperintendent.



Recommendations

• For African Americans in thepursuit of the superintendencyit is suggested that additional

educational training should bepursued in the areas of publicspeaking, governance, andwritten communication.



Recommendations for FurtherStudy

• A national study to compareAfrican Americansuperintendents with similar

size districts to determine if the perceptions of challengesand barriers are similar.




• A national study tocompare African Americansuperintendents by

national geographicregions to determine if the perceptions of challenges and barriers

are similar.




• A national study of bothAfrican Americansuperintendents and theirschool boards using surveys

and interviews to determinethe perceptions of theexpectations of an AfricanAmerican superintendent.




• A national longevity study overa period of five to ten years,tracking the number of AfricanAmerican superintendents and

the mobility of AfricanAmerican superintendents toverify that the actual numberof African Americansuperintendent is growing ordeclining.




• A national study of African Americanex/retired

superintendents todetermine their reasonsfor vacating thesuperintendency.



Conclusions

• Aspiring African Americansuperintendents must possessgreat communication skills both

written and oral, high morals,the ability to influenceindividuals, and they must bewell versed in all aspects of

running a school district.



Conclusions

• A great significance in changeof perceptions of AfricanAmerican superintendents

between 1984 and now wasfound using a Chi Square.Superintendents currently feelthat discrimination does not

play a major role in the dailyoperations of leading a schooldistrict.



Conclusions

• The major challenge faced wasnot their race, but that amajority of their districtscontained a high percentage of

low socioeconomic students.• The perceptions among African

American superintendents is thattheir race prevents them from

being selected for a majority of available superintendentpositions.



Conclusions

• African Americansuperintendents in 2006 haddifferent perceptions than the

superintendents surveyed in2000 and African Americansuperintendents surveyed in1984.



AN ANALYSIS OF

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THEPUBLIC SCHOOLSUPERINTENDENCY

Gary D. Bates

Prairie View A&M University

February 2007

Dr. Gary D. Bates, PhD Dissertation Defense, Dissertation Committee Member, Dr. William Allan...

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