The critical aspects of oversight that suburban superintendents, as instructional leaders, must employ to improve instruction

2013-04-05The purpose of this study was to better understand superintendents’ roles as instructional leaders, especially suburban district superintendents, by analyzing the critical aspects of oversight that suburban superintendents employed to improve instruction in their school districts. More specifically, this study set out to determine: 1) how superintendents define a district-wide plan for improving instruction in language arts and math, 2) how superintendents mobilize human, social, and physical capital to build a coalition of instructional leaders, 3) how superintendents build the capacity of site-level instructional leaders to implement the chosen instructional programs district-wide, and 4) how superintendents evaluate the effectiveness of their instructional programs. This study implemented a mixed-methods approach in which 33 Southern California suburban district superintendents completed a survey, four of these surveyed superintendents also participated in a structured interview, and additionally, the four interviewed superintendents provided relevant district documents that were analyzed as part of a document review. Through the process of triangulation, the study’s findings indicate that suburban superintendents whose districts increased student achievement in language arts and math over a three-year period implemented a collaborative, hands-on, and empowering leadership style that involved multiple stakeholders with the creation, communication, and implementation of the districts’ instructional vision and programs. These superintendents also made it a priority to provide their staff with the resources and professional development needed to implement their districts’ instructional initiatives, and their districts regularly analyzed data to evaluate the effectiveness of their instructional programs. Overall, this study provides hope for superintendents that they can play a valuable role in improving instruction in their districts