Frontier local schools superintendent jobs

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The school district is located within twenty 20 miles of six 6 colleges and universities including Mt. The fine arts facilities of these colleges afford excellent opportunities for a variety of educational and cultural experiences. Several colonial homes and taverns have been restored and are open to the public as museums. The district also is home to three private schools in Deerfield of international renown; namely, Deerfield Academy, Bement School, and Eaglebrook School.

Except for the small business area in South Deerfield, the area is primarily rural. The towns connect by interstate highways to Boston, Massachusetts; two hours by auto , Hartford, Connecticut; one and a half hours by auto , and Springfield, Massachusetts; forty-five minutes by auto.

Staff Reporter mkelly mariettatimes. Brown has been principal at the school for three years, and recently added the title of superintendent for the Frontier Local school district to her duties. Brown, who is entering her fourth year as principal of Frontier Middle and High School, said she received a phone call early in August from superintendent Brian Rentsch.

It was an emotional and exciting day. Brown accepted a contract offer from the Frontier board the following week, which includes provisions to keep her as high school principal. Brown, 53, said becoming a superintendent fits her career plans, her capabilities and her experience.

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Summary of quantitative data. Perceptions Career path perceptions are displayed by gender in Figure 2. Qualitative analyses revealed four themes of career path perception: interpersonal factors, intrapersonal factors, applicant traits, and district traits. Table 3 demonstrates the sub-themes supporting the major themes by gender and career path. Assistant superintendent career path data graphed by gender according to both the primary and secondary analysis plans.

Summary of qualitative results. Superintendents Career Path A chi-square test of independence revealed that superintendents' initial career paths to the superintendency did not significantly differ by gender. Superintendents appeared to increase commute times rather than relocate and did not consider themselves well-known in hiring districts when following outsider career paths as demonstrated in Table 2.

No female superintendents reported being well-known in hiring districts indicating a difference of note despite the inability to accurately calculate a valid chi-squared value zero cell size error. Perceptions Most superintendents believed their career path choice helped them achieve their current position as demonstrated in Figure 3.

Insiders perceived the insider career path as beneficial toward their career goals more often than outsiders. The qualitative sub-themes supporting the four major themes of career path perception are displayed in Table 3. Distribution of superintendents' perceived career path helpfulness by chosen path and gender.

Discussion The Gender Gap The gender gap in school leadership persists in Pennsylvania based on statistically fewer female superintendent and assistant superintendent respondents than male respondents. Although this seems to indicate a promising future for gender equality in the superintendency, interest and application patterns suggest perpetuation of inequities.

Aligning with trends in recent literature, male assistant superintendents were 1. Such a discrepancy is alarming because it provides a clear mechanism for the perpetuation of the gender gap in district leadership. If women remain uninterested in the superintendency, males will continue to drive educational leadership and related decision-making with more male-oriented understandings, priorities, and approaches.

Furthermore, a continued male over-representation in the superintendency has the potential to reinforce stereotypes that only men can lead effectively. Researchers must begin to investigate this disinterest and explore strategies to attract more women to top-level leadership positions in education. This female lack of interest in the superintendency gains further prominence when considered as a factor contributing to the gender discrepancy in leadership.

Women often enter the superintendency later in their careers, which may perpetuate gender discrepancies Glass, ; Lane-Washington and Wilson-Jones, ; Robinson et al. Superintendents tended to be older than assistant superintendents, but gender distributions were similar across age groups for each position. This indicated that female superintendents and assistant superintendents represented similar age groups but could not determine at what age positions were entered.

Future studies should consider adding an additional survey item to address this limitation. Even so, women may begin their leadership journey at later ages. Assistant superintendents demonstrated a slightly more discrepant age group distribution although no significant differences were present.

This delayed superintendency progression by women is also reflected in AASA's data Robinson et al. Given the time and stress demands of the superintendency, much more work needs to be done to understand these differences and whether or perhaps, how traditional gender roles around family responsibility impact the path to the superintendency NYSCOSS, , p. Although this study only begins to explore the effects of those paths and how to work around any related biases, the presence of related findings confirms the need for more research investigating such impacts.

Cultural changes present a possible mechanism for age similarities despite district leaders' genders. In fact, the typical modern American nuclear family consists of dual earners often sharing many parental responsibilities Lindsey, This counters concerns related to the maternal wall see Williams, where women are limited in their ability to pursue career goals earlier in life, if at all, due to the requirements of motherhood.

As both men and women share previously feminine duties, effects of the maternal wall may become weaker, allowing women to enter leadership roles earlier. Indeed, only male superintendents cited family as a factor contributing toward their superintendency career path choice. One assistant superintendent described his current disinterest in the superintendency as follows: There are currently several positions available in districts throughout Pennsylvania.

I have three daughters in school and I do not wish to pull them from school to relocate. Nor do I wish to become a weekend Dad! I will not sacrifice taking care of my own children to move away to take care of everyone else's children. As familial gender roles continue to blur, more flexibility may emerge in the career paths of both men and women in education despite the pattern where males are more likely to have children while superintendent Robinson et al.

Assistant Superintendents' Career Path Perceptions and Preferences Optimal Career Path Assistant superintendents aspiring to the superintendency typically considered the insider career path most optimal for acquiring a superintendent position based mainly on interpersonal factors within their current district such as reputation and relationships, which is consistent with the findings of Kelsey et al.

Assistant superintendents also discussed the importance of district familiarity as a secondary factor supporting perceived optimality of the insider career path. I have developed strong trusting and respectful relationships with members of all stakeholder groups. I know the district well, at all levels and departments. The second largest group of assistant superintendents consider neither the insider nor the outsider career path to the optimal career path toward a superintendent position.

A comparable proportion of female assistant superintendents considered no career path optimal and the insider path most optimal; meanwhile, a smaller proportion of male assistant superintendents considered no career path optimal than those considering the insider path or a nearby path most optimal.

Nevertheless, at least one quarter of each gender and nearly one third of the full assistant superintendent sample reported no perceived advantages to the insider, outsider, or nearby career paths. Approximately one-fifth of assistant superintendents considered the nearby district career path most optimal with a substantially larger proportion of males than females responding in this way.

This finding is unexpected because the high density of Pennsylvanian school districts creates the potential for nearby districts to provide benefits similar to insider career paths despite being outside districts. It is possible that nearby districts were not perceived to provide similar benefits as shown by the lack of qualitative responses noting any relationship to nearby districts.

Male assistant superintendents considered the nearby district career path most optimal based on the age of his current superintendent, professional networks, location, and experience. Familiar with the demographics and the system. Outsider career paths were rarely perceived as most optimal for acquiring a superintendent position with only 8. Men more frequently perceived the outsider career path as optimal when compared with women, yet both groups perceived other paths or no path at all as more optimal than the outsider path.

The most common reason for selecting the outsider path was related to opportunity and older superintendents up for retirement. Currently, the nearby district superintendents are new or newer. The end state? Nevertheless, the small proportion of assistant superintendents considering the outsider career path optimal combined with given reasons for insider and nearby district optimality indicate reputations and relationships may drive decreased outsider potential more than nepotism.

To further evaluate, data were dichotomized, and non-preferences were dropped in a secondary analysis. Here, nearly two thirds of included assistant superintendents considered the insider career path most optimal. This statistically significant difference demonstrates not only a gender specific difference in perceived optimality, but also a difference between how men and women perceive and experience the superintendent hiring process.

Women rising through an insider career path may experience less gender bias due to past experiences and reputations that dismantle typical gender stereotypes Dawley et al. Studies demonstrated women led in more effective ways and especially so in domains that would build such reputations and make an impression during interactions with others.

Folkman conducted a study comparing the measured competencies of men vs. They also surpass their male counterparts in driving for results. Nonetheless, the potential need of female assistant superintendents to use a specific career path demonstrates a continuing second-generation gender bias see Ibarra et al. If second-generation gender bias is—in fact—a culprit in the school district leadership gap working through a potentially necessary use of insider career paths, then mechanisms for overcoming such bias are required.

Ibarra and colleagues suggested that just by educating people about second-generation gender bias both women and men begin to develop work arounds and even break down some of the hidden barriers. In the same sense, district hiring committee and female assistant superintendents might benefit from second-generation gender bias awareness building if the insider career path is actually more optimal for aspirant superintendents.

Application History Assistant superintendents did not seem to apply for jobs based on their perceived optimal career paths. Despite considering the insider career path most optimal, more than half of the sampled assistant superintendents applied for superintendent positions only as an outsider. Although outsider application histories seem counterintuitive to perceptions of the insider path as optimal, there is only one district where a candidate might apply as an insider and districts in Pennsylvania where the same candidate could apply as an outsider.

Some of these outsider application histories may simply be driven by a lack of superintendent turnover in the assistant superintendent's current district, which mimics assertions of those considering nearby district career paths as optimal due to young and effective superintendents in their current district. Another possible mechanism of the outsider applications could be alignment with preferences as opposed to optimality perceptions. Preferred Career Paths Preferences did not align with patterns seen in application histories but aligned with those seen in optimality perceptions instead as displayed in Figure 2.

More females preferred a specific career path than considered a specific path optimal, while males more often considered a specific path optimal than preferred either path. This is congruent with males' near exclusivity in citing district traits as contributing to path optimality.

Females provided more intra- and inter-personal reasons for perceived path optimality, which may stem from preferences. Counter to our hypotheses, men more than doubled women in likeliness to consider a nearby district as the most optimal career path despite the potential of these districts to offer similar advantages of familiarly as home districts; however, women preferred both insider and nearby districts confirming hypothesized outcomes. When dichotomized, the differences in preferences and perceived optimality by gender are stark.

This may suggest that women are tied to home districts, hold relationships important, or oppose change more frequently than men; however, without related qualitative data no clear determinations of the roots of this substantial gender difference are possible. With striking resemblance to patterns in perceptions of optimal career paths as demonstrated in Figure 2 , an integration of optimal career path with preferred career path warrants further exploration.

Superintendents' Career Path Patterns and Perceptions Career Paths Similar proportions of superintendents entered their first superintendency position as insiders and outsiders both overall and for males; however, a slightly higher proportion of female superintendents entered their first position via the insider career path.

Although statistically insignificant, this trend indicates at least a slight advantage of the insider career path for females and mirrors recent data Robinson et al. Superintendents often attributed their career path choice to intrapersonal factors despite career path.

While insiders reported choices based on familiarity and timing, outsiders reported location. Of particular interest, only men responded as choosing a career path based on family. Avoid relocating my family. This may result from a higher incidence of having children while superintendent as was found in AASA's Mid-Century assessment Robinson et al. Second to intrapersonal factors, insiders frequently noted planned transitions and applicant traits drove their career path choice.

However, having an in-depth knowledge of the district and having engineered many of our major initiatives, definitely provided me with insight into the qualities and skills necessary to keep our district on its current trajectory of ongoing improvement.

The Superintendency was not open in my district at the time; the Superintendency was something I was striving for at the time of my move. I was told I was going to make a great Superintendent. I felt it was the right time to make the move. Interpersonal factors were infrequently mentioned for both insiders and outsiders. Similarly, outsiders rarely noted planned transitions and never noted applicant traits as choice drivers. Only one male insider attributed his career path choice to opportunity, a district trait.

If you've worked in district, have done a great job, there is a concern that your area will not be sustained. I think it's a perception issue. Women and school districts should work toward making external connections to facilitate nearby district opportunities and awareness. Insider career paths offer a single job opportunity as opposed to outsider career paths offering multitudinous opportunities—as many as in Pennsylvania alone.

As such, opportunities to employ an insider career path are often scarce. With over half of all women entering the superintendency through this career path, one must consider how the insider path's advantages may better align with the needs of female applicants.

When broken into male and female, the response distributions were nearly identical to the overall responses. However, perceptions of career path efficacy were statistically different when separated by insider and outsider paths. More insiders considered their career path helpful than outsiders, but with little differentiation by gender as displayed in Figure 3.

Many women cited intrapersonal factors, applicant skills, and district traits as reasons for the efficacy of the insider career path. My work ethic and competence was known to the Board. I demonstrated an ability to lead and help the district continue to move forwards and help students and teachers succeed.

Although a lower proportion, most outsiders considered their career path helpful in attaining their first superintendent position. I had experienced [in] the educational world outside of my current district. An outsider does not have connections to anyone and can be objective. As an outsider, one must work on developing relationships with all stakeholders before attempting to transform any components of the district. If drastic change is the direction of the board, it is much easier for an outsider to do so.

This mimics responses citing more opportunity as a driver of outside career path efficacy. Nonetheless, major change is infrequent leading to a potentially infrequent outsider benefit scenario. Superintendent-Assistant Superintendent Congruence While superintendents' career path usage was relatively equal, assistant superintendents applied as outsiders more often, but they preferred and perceived the insider path as more optimal.

When delineated by gender, males matched the hiring data in preferences and perceptions, but continued to apply as outsiders more often. Females better approximated the hiring data in application history but differed more on perceptions and preferences with much higher proportions citing insider paths. This disconnect is not entirely surprising for application history due to the potential for many more outsider application opportunities; however, the perceptions and preferences fail to facilitate more effective career path use—especially for females.

These gender differences are reflective of the occupational sex segregation through differential job queue agency as explored in Tallerico and Blount's work. Despite job queuing by hierarchy of desirability, females must match a biased labor queue that appears to find more attractiveness in male applicants. As such, men have more agency to act on desirability hierarchy facilitating a potential ghettoization of women entering the superintendency where less attractive jobs go to female applicants.

Differing opinions about outsider career paths support quantitative discrepancies between assistant superintendents and superintendents. It is possible that the experience of acquiring a superintendency position changes the perspectives of aspiring superintendents.

With many more opportunities to apply as an outsider, superintendents may develop a clearer understanding of the outsider path in their journey to the superintendency resulting with a more molded perspective. Future studies should explore this change in perspective to develop a better overall understanding of the outsider superintendent hiring process.

With such dense opportunity, aspirant superintendents have potential access to insider-like experiences in technically outsider districts. In the highest density areas, districts are often no more than 5 miles apart. It is here that superintendents are likely to network and become involved in cross-district activities due solely to high proximity.

With experience in outside districts, aspirant superintendents might develop similar quality relationships and reputations in those outside districts. When faced with a need for change, the district will have positive views of the potential superintendent but also access to new ideas and perspectives.

Based on perceived supports for the efficacy of different career paths, this could create the ideal career path. Whatever the cause, the potential for the Pennsylvania nearby district career path is heightened by the findings of this study and requires more exploration.

Implications for Future Research Two pressing issues revealed by this study are the disconnect between successful career paths and application histories and the disconnect between assistant superintendent and superintendent perceptions of career path helpfulness. These issues provide a plethora of future research directions including an exploration the differences in these perceptions and practices through both exploratory and theory-driven methodologies. Our emphasis and focus will be to provide a balanced education which includes addressing the whole child.

Daily we will strive to provide balanced programs that challenge us to build upon our social, emotional, and academic needs. Every school year brings about the promise of a new start. Over the next 10 months, the daily challenges of achieving our goals will be difficult.

It is an exciting privilege for me to witness the opportunities for students to learn, build lifelong relationships, serve our community, and grow into young adults who are equipped to be productive citizens. I look forward to seeing you throughout the year in our schools, concerts, athletic events, theatrical productions, and other school-related activities.

I welcome the opportunity to share the successes of our students with you and witness their diverse talents, which reflect the best that Frontier Central School District has to offer. I feel that school districts are here to serve our students, parents, and community and provide a well-rounded educational experience allowing our graduates to make a positive impact in life.

Parents, community members and alumni please stop in and see us. You are always welcome!

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It is fulfilling to be part of a strong, dedicated staff, and to know the primary focus of our District is to advance opportunities for kids while instilling in them the qualities of good citizenship. This year begins my 23rd year in education, and have had the opportunity to serve in many different districts as a Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, Assistant Superintendent, Superintendent of Franklinville Central School and now your Superintendent.

My experiences in each of these roles allowed time to develop a well-rounded perspective of education at all levels and helped me to be the recipient of the Superintendent Excellency Award from the Western New York Educational Council in In addition to my professional life, I am also a husband and father of four children ranging in age from My professional and personal experiences have shaped who I am today, as well as my expectations of what our school does for kids daily.

This year will be like no other that I have witnessed. Regardless of the hurdles we face, it is still an opportunity to improve on goals set from the previous year and change where needed. Our goals at Frontier Central School District continue to focus on providing all of our students with the highest level of educational programs possible. Our emphasis and focus will be to provide a balanced education which includes addressing the whole child.

Daily we will strive to provide balanced programs that challenge us to build upon our social, emotional, and academic needs. Thus, the more well known a female successor is to her organization, the more likely that she will be judged on previous impressions and performance, not on stereotypes p.

When extended to female superintendent aspirants, gender biases and stereotypes might be more easily overcome by a woman who is well-known or an insider in the district; thus, driving our hypothesized benefit via an insider or nearby-district career path. The Pennsylvania Superintendency Pennsylvania provides a unique environment for superintendency research with school districts, each with their own superintendent and many with additional assistant superintendents.

These districts are often small and close together providing opportunities for inter-district networking and communication, which allows leaders to self-promote to more than one district. Close proximity allows cross-district moves without relocation or significant commute time changes. Together, these factors provide an ideal platform for the study of female superintendency career paths. The Study The purpose of the present study was 2-fold. First, the study sought to understand how men and women aspiring to the superintendency perceived the insider vs.

The research questions were as follows: 1 Does a district leadership gender gap currently exist in Pennsylvania? Which career path do assistant superintendents consider the most optimal, and what influences this perception? Do preferences and application histories align with perceptions of optimality? In addition to providing recommendations for women aspiring toward the superintendency, findings from this study contribute to the understanding of the underrepresentation of women in leadership and the need for gender awareness and equity in school leadership hiring practices.

Research Design and Methods Participants A list of all Pennsylvanian superintendents and assistant superintendents, obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Education PDE , directed a search for the email addresses of those administrators. Of the administrators, active email addresses were obtained through school district website searches of which were superintendents and were assistant superintendents.

Each potential participant was emailed up to three times with a request to participate in an online survey. The survey was piloted with 10 university personnel including a current assistant superintendent and retired superintendent. Prior to responding to the survey, all participants electronically signed an informed consent form that included the consent to publish statistics from their data and direct quotations providing no identifying information were included. Data were dummy coded and missing data were not included in analyses.

Descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests were used as appropriate to investigate the findings. Chi-squared tests are appropriate for determining differences when data represent frequencies, compared data are mutually exclusive, each participant can contribute only one point of data for each test, the groups are independent, there are two categories of data, and data are derived from a simple random sample Field, The sample used here is considered random as the entire population of Pennsylvania administrators was aimed for inclusion and the responding principals were not controlled.

All secondary analyses were run using identical analytical methods to the original analysis. Qualitative Data Analysis Qualitative survey items were analyzed using a dual-cycle deductive approach Creswell, ; Maxwell, ; Patton, During this analysis, data were analyzed thematically in relation to the question items during initial coding.

Emergent themes were refined during the secondary coding cycle and further contextualized with the data to create meaning. Themes were triangulated for credibility via literature comparison, expert review two superintendents and two assistant superintendents , and coding by a second researcher Patton, Support for themes was confirmed by direct quotations. The Mixed Methods Design The use of a concurrent mixed methods was most appropriate for this study because it allowed for sensemaking of both numerical trends and analysis of the present phenomenon Creswell and Plano Clark, Use of a phenomenological qualitative approach empowers researchers to study the lived experiences and understand the perspectives of individuals Patton, Combining this approach with chi-squared tests allowed the researchers to look at patterns in superintendency acquisition and application, which better contextualized and informed the data findings.

Limitations As is typical of any location-based study, results may only describe Pennsylvanian superintendents and aspirants and not generalize to the population at large. Similarly, this study suffered from low power due to a small sample size as is typical of administrative research. Finally, exploration of intersectionalities could not occur in this data. Findings Of the assistant superintendents and superintendents contacted, leaders responded to the survey.

Ninety-two assistant superintendents and superintendents completed the entire survey resulting in response rates of Participant demographics are presented in Table 1. Descriptive data by gender. Males aspired toward the superintendency 1. Despite interest in the superintendency, only The relationship between interest in the superintendency and application history by gender is displayed in Figure 1.

Assistant superintendents who are interested in the superintendency and those who already applied by gender. Of the 39 assistant superintendents who had already applied for a superintendent position, Summary of quantitative data. Perceptions Career path perceptions are displayed by gender in Figure 2. Qualitative analyses revealed four themes of career path perception: interpersonal factors, intrapersonal factors, applicant traits, and district traits.

Table 3 demonstrates the sub-themes supporting the major themes by gender and career path. Assistant superintendent career path data graphed by gender according to both the primary and secondary analysis plans. Summary of qualitative results. Superintendents Career Path A chi-square test of independence revealed that superintendents' initial career paths to the superintendency did not significantly differ by gender. Superintendents appeared to increase commute times rather than relocate and did not consider themselves well-known in hiring districts when following outsider career paths as demonstrated in Table 2.

No female superintendents reported being well-known in hiring districts indicating a difference of note despite the inability to accurately calculate a valid chi-squared value zero cell size error. Perceptions Most superintendents believed their career path choice helped them achieve their current position as demonstrated in Figure 3. Insiders perceived the insider career path as beneficial toward their career goals more often than outsiders.

The qualitative sub-themes supporting the four major themes of career path perception are displayed in Table 3. Distribution of superintendents' perceived career path helpfulness by chosen path and gender. Discussion The Gender Gap The gender gap in school leadership persists in Pennsylvania based on statistically fewer female superintendent and assistant superintendent respondents than male respondents.

Although this seems to indicate a promising future for gender equality in the superintendency, interest and application patterns suggest perpetuation of inequities. Aligning with trends in recent literature, male assistant superintendents were 1. Such a discrepancy is alarming because it provides a clear mechanism for the perpetuation of the gender gap in district leadership. If women remain uninterested in the superintendency, males will continue to drive educational leadership and related decision-making with more male-oriented understandings, priorities, and approaches.

Furthermore, a continued male over-representation in the superintendency has the potential to reinforce stereotypes that only men can lead effectively. Researchers must begin to investigate this disinterest and explore strategies to attract more women to top-level leadership positions in education. This female lack of interest in the superintendency gains further prominence when considered as a factor contributing to the gender discrepancy in leadership.

Women often enter the superintendency later in their careers, which may perpetuate gender discrepancies Glass, ; Lane-Washington and Wilson-Jones, ; Robinson et al. Superintendents tended to be older than assistant superintendents, but gender distributions were similar across age groups for each position. This indicated that female superintendents and assistant superintendents represented similar age groups but could not determine at what age positions were entered.

Future studies should consider adding an additional survey item to address this limitation. Even so, women may begin their leadership journey at later ages. Assistant superintendents demonstrated a slightly more discrepant age group distribution although no significant differences were present.

This delayed superintendency progression by women is also reflected in AASA's data Robinson et al. Given the time and stress demands of the superintendency, much more work needs to be done to understand these differences and whether or perhaps, how traditional gender roles around family responsibility impact the path to the superintendency NYSCOSS, , p.

Although this study only begins to explore the effects of those paths and how to work around any related biases, the presence of related findings confirms the need for more research investigating such impacts. Cultural changes present a possible mechanism for age similarities despite district leaders' genders. In fact, the typical modern American nuclear family consists of dual earners often sharing many parental responsibilities Lindsey, This counters concerns related to the maternal wall see Williams, where women are limited in their ability to pursue career goals earlier in life, if at all, due to the requirements of motherhood.

As both men and women share previously feminine duties, effects of the maternal wall may become weaker, allowing women to enter leadership roles earlier. Indeed, only male superintendents cited family as a factor contributing toward their superintendency career path choice. One assistant superintendent described his current disinterest in the superintendency as follows: There are currently several positions available in districts throughout Pennsylvania.

I have three daughters in school and I do not wish to pull them from school to relocate. Nor do I wish to become a weekend Dad! I will not sacrifice taking care of my own children to move away to take care of everyone else's children. As familial gender roles continue to blur, more flexibility may emerge in the career paths of both men and women in education despite the pattern where males are more likely to have children while superintendent Robinson et al.

Assistant Superintendents' Career Path Perceptions and Preferences Optimal Career Path Assistant superintendents aspiring to the superintendency typically considered the insider career path most optimal for acquiring a superintendent position based mainly on interpersonal factors within their current district such as reputation and relationships, which is consistent with the findings of Kelsey et al. Assistant superintendents also discussed the importance of district familiarity as a secondary factor supporting perceived optimality of the insider career path.

I have developed strong trusting and respectful relationships with members of all stakeholder groups. I know the district well, at all levels and departments. The second largest group of assistant superintendents consider neither the insider nor the outsider career path to the optimal career path toward a superintendent position. A comparable proportion of female assistant superintendents considered no career path optimal and the insider path most optimal; meanwhile, a smaller proportion of male assistant superintendents considered no career path optimal than those considering the insider path or a nearby path most optimal.

Nevertheless, at least one quarter of each gender and nearly one third of the full assistant superintendent sample reported no perceived advantages to the insider, outsider, or nearby career paths. Approximately one-fifth of assistant superintendents considered the nearby district career path most optimal with a substantially larger proportion of males than females responding in this way. This finding is unexpected because the high density of Pennsylvanian school districts creates the potential for nearby districts to provide benefits similar to insider career paths despite being outside districts.

It is possible that nearby districts were not perceived to provide similar benefits as shown by the lack of qualitative responses noting any relationship to nearby districts. Male assistant superintendents considered the nearby district career path most optimal based on the age of his current superintendent, professional networks, location, and experience.

Familiar with the demographics and the system. Outsider career paths were rarely perceived as most optimal for acquiring a superintendent position with only 8. Men more frequently perceived the outsider career path as optimal when compared with women, yet both groups perceived other paths or no path at all as more optimal than the outsider path. The most common reason for selecting the outsider path was related to opportunity and older superintendents up for retirement.

Currently, the nearby district superintendents are new or newer. The end state? Nevertheless, the small proportion of assistant superintendents considering the outsider career path optimal combined with given reasons for insider and nearby district optimality indicate reputations and relationships may drive decreased outsider potential more than nepotism.

To further evaluate, data were dichotomized, and non-preferences were dropped in a secondary analysis. Here, nearly two thirds of included assistant superintendents considered the insider career path most optimal. This statistically significant difference demonstrates not only a gender specific difference in perceived optimality, but also a difference between how men and women perceive and experience the superintendent hiring process.

Women rising through an insider career path may experience less gender bias due to past experiences and reputations that dismantle typical gender stereotypes Dawley et al. Studies demonstrated women led in more effective ways and especially so in domains that would build such reputations and make an impression during interactions with others. Folkman conducted a study comparing the measured competencies of men vs. They also surpass their male counterparts in driving for results.

Nonetheless, the potential need of female assistant superintendents to use a specific career path demonstrates a continuing second-generation gender bias see Ibarra et al. If second-generation gender bias is—in fact—a culprit in the school district leadership gap working through a potentially necessary use of insider career paths, then mechanisms for overcoming such bias are required.

Ibarra and colleagues suggested that just by educating people about second-generation gender bias both women and men begin to develop work arounds and even break down some of the hidden barriers. In the same sense, district hiring committee and female assistant superintendents might benefit from second-generation gender bias awareness building if the insider career path is actually more optimal for aspirant superintendents.

Application History Assistant superintendents did not seem to apply for jobs based on their perceived optimal career paths. Despite considering the insider career path most optimal, more than half of the sampled assistant superintendents applied for superintendent positions only as an outsider.

Although outsider application histories seem counterintuitive to perceptions of the insider path as optimal, there is only one district where a candidate might apply as an insider and districts in Pennsylvania where the same candidate could apply as an outsider. Some of these outsider application histories may simply be driven by a lack of superintendent turnover in the assistant superintendent's current district, which mimics assertions of those considering nearby district career paths as optimal due to young and effective superintendents in their current district.

Another possible mechanism of the outsider applications could be alignment with preferences as opposed to optimality perceptions. Preferred Career Paths Preferences did not align with patterns seen in application histories but aligned with those seen in optimality perceptions instead as displayed in Figure 2.

More females preferred a specific career path than considered a specific path optimal, while males more often considered a specific path optimal than preferred either path. This is congruent with males' near exclusivity in citing district traits as contributing to path optimality. Females provided more intra- and inter-personal reasons for perceived path optimality, which may stem from preferences.

Counter to our hypotheses, men more than doubled women in likeliness to consider a nearby district as the most optimal career path despite the potential of these districts to offer similar advantages of familiarly as home districts; however, women preferred both insider and nearby districts confirming hypothesized outcomes. When dichotomized, the differences in preferences and perceived optimality by gender are stark.

This may suggest that women are tied to home districts, hold relationships important, or oppose change more frequently than men; however, without related qualitative data no clear determinations of the roots of this substantial gender difference are possible. With striking resemblance to patterns in perceptions of optimal career paths as demonstrated in Figure 2 , an integration of optimal career path with preferred career path warrants further exploration.

Superintendents' Career Path Patterns and Perceptions Career Paths Similar proportions of superintendents entered their first superintendency position as insiders and outsiders both overall and for males; however, a slightly higher proportion of female superintendents entered their first position via the insider career path. Although statistically insignificant, this trend indicates at least a slight advantage of the insider career path for females and mirrors recent data Robinson et al.

Superintendents often attributed their career path choice to intrapersonal factors despite career path. While insiders reported choices based on familiarity and timing, outsiders reported location. Of particular interest, only men responded as choosing a career path based on family.

Avoid relocating my family. This may result from a higher incidence of having children while superintendent as was found in AASA's Mid-Century assessment Robinson et al. Second to intrapersonal factors, insiders frequently noted planned transitions and applicant traits drove their career path choice. However, having an in-depth knowledge of the district and having engineered many of our major initiatives, definitely provided me with insight into the qualities and skills necessary to keep our district on its current trajectory of ongoing improvement.

The Superintendency was not open in my district at the time; the Superintendency was something I was striving for at the time of my move. I was told I was going to make a great Superintendent. I felt it was the right time to make the move.