A succession planning study with 100 sitting superintendents randomly selected from the 20 Education Service Centers across Texas. The superintendents are being interviewed and are providing their campus and district leadership pathway practices (administrative succession planning practices). The first three interview findings which provide a type…

Public schools have been under great scrutiny. National and international tests have exposed deficiencies of students' knowledge prompting federal and state legislation to focus on improving schools' effectiveness. The pressure induced by recent legislation have school districts scrambling to increase student achievement. One area of reform…

As demands for accountability are heightened and job expectations become increasingly unrealistic, people are less interested in entering the superintendency or staying in it if they already have it. This study explored motivators and inhibitors that contribute to a person's decision to become a superintendent and remain in the superintendency. Of…

More and more research is focusing on the importance of a healthy work environment and its impact on workers' well-being and productivity. A culture of collaboration has been shown to have an important impact on school-reform efforts and is recognized by several authors as an effective platform for progress within an organization. A collaborative…

A study was undertaken to develop a profile of department and division chairs appointed during the 1995-96 academic year in Texas institutions of higher education. Survey results were used to determine chairs' perceptions of the transition process into their new roles and to find methods to facilitate that transition. Questionnaires were…

In a field dominated almost exclusively by men, successful women administrators in public schools can provide a rich source of information concerning the advantages and disadvantages of being a "female executive." After briefly discussing well-documented internal and external barriers to women's administrative career aspirations, this…

A study assessed the equality of women managers in 11 of the largest state agencies in Texas. It also investigated the perceptions of men and women managers concerning a variety of work related issues in Texas state government. A stratified random sample of 25 percent of all managers was drawn, and 1,844 responses, representing a 55.5% response…

Job satisfaction and its components were investigated among 156 teachers in 15 of the smallest school districts in the Texas panhandle. The districts were randomly selected from all panhandle districts having an average daily attendance of 200 students or less. Respondents completed a 28-item modified version of the Community Attitudes Toward…

The extent to which citizens are knowledgeable about and satisfied with major services in their communities is important in effective community development. Quantities as well as quality of services need to be assessed to make a meaningful evaluation of quality of life. To investigate selected institutional services in Hopkins County, Texas, in…

In response to education reform mandates, rewards and incentives such as career ladder and master teacher programs are being designed to break lock-step salary schedules and to retain competent teachers. While these "pay-for-performance" plans seem acceptable to taxpayers, few realize that such approaches have already been tried and…

A study of the process of a 1977-1983 oil and gas boom in Caldwell, Texas, disproved the assumption that local social effects of rapid energy development are severe and negative. Using interviews, surveys, observation, local newspapers, and other writings as data sources, researchers determined that during the boom, Caldwell's population grew…

Trained, indigenous, bilingual people conducted interviews with 172 Mexican American families from the Southmost area of Brownsville and rural communities in Brooks County, Texas, to ascertain metro-nonmetro community satisfaction, as determined by place of residence and age status differentiations among family members. Complete family study units…

As Texas public schools undertake their third year of implementing site-based decision making (SBDM), it becomes increasingly important to examine the extent to which SBDM has achieved its purported goals. This paper examined how Texas public school districts might effect mandated governance changes through the political phenomenon known as…

The amount of support and the degree of satisfaction with available support to rural and metropolitan parents of handicapped preschoolers was studied by analyzing parents' responses to mailed questionnaires assessing family background and demographic characteristics and the mothers' perceptions of the availability and quality of support systems in…

The EnterTech Project was a collaboration of over 80 coalition members (employers, educators, community-based organizations, government entities) whose purpose was to develop a training program to prepare unskilled workers for employment opportunities in Texas high-tech industries. Development of the EnterTech curriculum and instructional design…