Superintendent leadership: Comparing superintendent and school board president perceptions of essential leadership characteristics and capabilities of the superintendent in today\u27s complex and ever-changing educational environment according to MCREL\u27s superintendent responsibilities and the Iowa standards for school leaders

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare perceptions of superintendents and school board presidents in Iowa public schools regarding the essential leadership characteristics and capabilities of the superintendent in today’s complex and ever-changing educational environment. Iowa superintendents and school board presidents were invited to participate in an online survey where they were asked to indicate the importance of the Iowa Standards for School Leaders and the McRel Superintendent Responsibilities. Respondents to the survey included 54.6% of superintendents and 40.5% of school board presidents in Iowa. The survey in this study used a Likert scale for respondents to list the six Iowa Standards for School Leaders in ranked order of importance. The next section asked respondents to indicate the level of importance of each of the McRel Superintendent Responsibilities. Superintendent respondents were asked to indicate their level of performance according to the McRel Superintendents Responsibilities. School board presidents were asked to indicate the level of performance of their local superintendent according to each of the McRel Superintendent Responsibilities. Lastly, the respondents used a Likert scale to rank order a list of issues facing superintendents, according to the American Association of School Administrators, the School Superintendent’s Association, in order of importance in the respondents’ local school district. Demographics data were also collected including the respondents’ age, gender, ethnicity, district enrollment, and the number of years the respondent had served in their role as superintendent or school board member. The study concluded that there were differences in the perceptions of superintendents and school board presidents in Iowa public schools regarding the essential leadership characteristics and capabilities of the superintendents. Throughout the analysis of the surveys completed by Iowa superintendents and school board presidents, there were many similarities in the responses of the two groups. Although there were similarities, there were also statistically significant differences in the responses of the two groups on the rank ordering of the Iowa Standards for School Leaders, the level of importance of the McRel Superintendent Responsibilities, the performance of the superintendents according to the McRel Superintendent Responsibilities, and the rank ordering of the issues school districts were facing