An analysis of school board presidents' perceptions of appointed and elected school superintendents' administration of public school districts in Georgia, 1994

The purpose of this study was to determine school board presidents' perceptual differences of appointed and elected school superintendents' administration (capital outlay, curriculum development, fiscal planning, and policy implementation) of public school districts in Georgia. Selected moderator variables including school board president's race, gender, age, and years of experience; superintendent's race, gender, and annual salary; school district location; and student enrollment were analyzed to provide additional explanations of significant differences which may exist between appointed and elected superintendents' administration . Descriptive survey was used to generate the data in this study. Data were collected through the use of a 42-item questionnaire developed by the researcher. All of the 181 school board presidents in Georgia were surveyed, and a response rate of 59 percent was achieved. A representative sample of 55 respondents (52 percent) indicated that they served as school board presidents in systems with appointed school superintendents, while a representative sample of 48 respondents (45 percent) noted that they served as school board presidents in systems with elected school superintendents. There were three respondents (3 percent) who did not indicate if the superintendents were appointed or elected in their school districts. Analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze the data. In cases where significant differences were found with the F ratio with variables that had more than two groups, multiple comparison tests were used to determine where significant differences occurred. Data were tested for significant differences at the .05 level. Findings, overall, were in favor of appointed superintendents. Appointed superintendents were perceived by school board presidents as having a better working knowledge of capital outlay, curriculum development, fiscal planning, and policy implementation