Leadership characteristics, work/family characteristics, and demographic information of women superintendents and assistant superintendents in Texas

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, it was designed to describe that unique minority of educational leaders who are female and who are currently superintendents or assistant superintendents in Texas public school districts. Second, the study compared the women superintendents and assistant superintendents of school districts in Texas which have a population of less than 2000 students to those districts with a population of more than 2000 students. There were 123 participants in the sample. Data were elicited via a 221-survey questionnaire addressing three rubrics: (a) leadership characteristics, (b) work/family characteristics, and (c) demographic information. Five null hypotheses explored possible differences between the two groups (large school districts, Group I and small school districts, Group II) in these areas. Data analyses addressed the five null hypotheses at a significance level of.01. Responses in the Likert response format were examined utilizing multiple t tests, after testing the assumption of equal and unequal variances. All five null hypotheses were retained.

This study supports the notion that these women administrators are more alike than they are different since that the number and type of commonalities exceed differences. It had been assumed that the size of the school districts and the variation in responsibilities might be reflected in significantly different types of administrators. However, if this is true, this study did not support such an assumption.