Blazing New Trails - Connexions

98 CRITICAL ISSUES IN SHARED LEADERSHIP
Therefore, this sample was fairly representative of the general population of school
superintendents in contemporary America (Pennsylvania School Board Association, 2010).
The proportion of females to males was slightly higher but the experience factors were very
similar in terms of their total years of educational experiences, administrative experiences,
number of years in their current position and number of superintendencies held during their
career. Their school district demographics are similar to other national trends in that the
typical school district is more rural or suburban than urban with student populations of fewer
than 3000 students and consists of limited number of schools and few other administrators.
Although about 20% of school districts were classified as having schools in “need of
improvement” according to the NCLB factors, the accountability concern promulgated by that
legislation is a prominent factor for school superintendents.
Findings of Part B of the Survey Instrument (Polka-Denig PS/DM Survey)
The researchers applied SPSS statistical treatments to the Part B data of this survey
instrument and identified various levels of significance and correlation between and among
the data. The following Tables 1 and 2 reflect the results of those findings:
Table 1. Rank Order of Category Mean Scores of Part B (Polka-Denig PS/DM Survey).
Rank Order Category Mean Score Standard
Deviation
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1 Incremental 29.29 14.83
2 Classical 29.27 14.95
3 Shared Decision-making 27.11 13.70
4 Mixed Scanning 26.49 12.77
5 Satisficing 24.86 12.65
6 Garbage Can 23.37 12.91
7 Political 21.75 11.16
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The above mean scores represent the aggregate mean score of the five items in each of the
seven categories of decision-making and problem-solving. A series of independent-sample ttests,
with gender as the independent variable and the frequency of use of the decision-making
and problem-solving approach as the dependent variable revealed no statistical difference
between the genders.
An ANOVA, with years in education as the independent variable and the frequency of
use of the decision-making and problem-solving approach as the dependent variable, also
revealed no significant differences by years of educational experience. However, an ANOVA
(see Table 2), with years in administration, school district setting, school district student
population, and number of administrators in the district as the independent variables and the
frequency of use of the decision-making and problem-solving approaches as the dependent
variable revealed several significant findings.