Date of Award

1-1-2013

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Leadership and Policies

Sub-Department

Educational Administration

First Advisor

Edward Cox

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of South Carolina public school superintendents regarding individual and organizational attitudes toward innovation. Specific characteristics of South Carolina public school superintendents and public school districts, including enrollment, poverty level, school report card grades, age, gender, and years of experience, were analyzed to determine individual superintendents' and their school districts' orientations toward innovation. The findings have the potential to provide much-needed guidance to superintendents in training so that they may be better equipped to meet the challenge of school reform and innovation in relation to student achievement. In addition, the study may serve to provide guidance to district and school-level staff working to support the plans for implementation of reform and innovation.

The findings that emerged from this study include the following: (1) The majority of South Carolina public school superintendents perceive themselves as highly innovative. They also perceive their districts to be high in innovativeness yet they rate the districts lower than they rate themselves. (2) There exists a weak positive relationship between innovative public school district superintendents and innovative public school districts. (3) Superintendents of larger districts and districts with higher ESEA grades rated their districts higher in organizational innovation than smaller districts and those with lower ESEA scores.

Rights

© 2013, Alfred Lamont Williams

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