The Emergence of the CEO

Abstract

A decade ago a study was completed on the "Typical" Superintendent in South Dakota (Uhl & Engelking, 1993). Since that time, an administrative mandate has occurred in the state that has affected the top administrative job. As of July, 1996, the requirement of a superintendent's endorsement as a condition of employment as the chief of a school district was eliminated. The state created the "CEO" (Chief Executive Officer) of local school districts. These CEOs could serve as the lead administrative officer of a local school district without any forma] training in education. There seemed to be an assumption among policy makers that principals and other school employees would step into the CEO option and little negative impact would occur. Indeed. Governor Janklow was famous in local circles for his comment that any local barber could run a school district. The CEO option began to have immediate impact. During the 1996-97 school year, the state had 15 CEO's in the position of superintendent (No data on full time teaching equivalencies (FTEs) was available). During the 1997-98 school year the state listed 13.5 FTE's as CEO's in the superintendency. The 1998-99 school year saw the third increase in CEO's with the state listing 18.17 FTE's. During the 1999-2000 school year, 24.25 FTE's were CEO's. During me 2000-2001 school year, the data was not available but responses to me survey sent out by this researcher found that 29 respondents identified themselves as a CEO or about twice as many as during the initial year of 1996-97. This increase in the use of CEO's is occurring at the same time the state reported a 9.5% drop in the numbers of administrators in the state since 1988. During the winter of 2000, superintendents and CEO's in South Dakota's public K-12 school districts were surveyed to determine: * What percentage of the schools were currently using the CEO alternative. * What geographic areas of the state, if any, were using the alternative most heavily. * What was the breakdown of the various levels of training of both CEO's and Superintendents. * What type of support and professional development was most desired by those serving as the top administrator of a school district. * What were the future plans of people currently serving as CEO's" Of the 170 surveys sent to local school superintendents/CEO's. 155 were returned. This was a response rate of 91%. Of the 155 practitioners responding, 29 indicated they were a CEO and lacked the superintendent's certificate. So, during the 2000-2001 school year, 19% of the school districts in South Dakota were being led by CEO's. CEO's by Geographic Region The survey respondents were asked to include their zip code so that area of the state could be identified. The state was divided into roughly four equal quadrants. Of the 29 self reported CEO's, seventeen were located in the Northeast Quadrant, five were located in the Southeast Quadrant, two were located in the Southwest Quadrant, and five were located in the Northwest Quadrant. Levels of Professional Degrees Superintendents responding to the survey possessed the following levels of professional degrees: 34% had a Masters (M.A., M.S., or M.Ed.), 47.5% held a Specialist Degree (Ed.S.), and 18.5% indicated that they held a Doctorate (Ph.D.or Ed.D.). CEO respondents indicated me following levels of professional degrees: 75.8% had a Masters (M.A., M.S., or M.Ed.), 3.4% possessed a Specialist (Ed.S.), 3.4% had a Doctorate (Ph.D. or Ed.D.) and finally, 17.3% indicated they possessed a Bachelor in Education Degree or did not indicate any formal educational training. When the two groups were combined, the following picture emerged: Bachelors or less 03%, Masters 41%, Specialist 39%, and Doctorate 16%. These results were compared to the findings of Uhl and Engelking (1991). They had reported the following preparation levels: Masters 57%, Specialist 23%, and Doctorate 20%. …