The purpose of this study was to identify the roles and functions of the assistant superintendent position in public school systems in the State of North Carolina during the 1989 1990 school year. The assistant superintendents included in the research sample for this study were designated by three different titles within their organizations. These titles were (1) assistant superintendent, (2) associate superintendent, and (3) deputy superintendent.
Of the 210 assistant superintendents providing the required information on the factor, 61.4 percent were accorded responsibilities as second in command within their organiza tions, while the remaining 38.6 percent were not permitted to act as system superintendent in the superintendent's absence. The respondents were predominantly male 79.2 percent, in the 41 55 age group 71.1 percent, and caucasian 85.8 percent.
The findings of this study indicated statistically signif icant differences with respect to functional involvements of public school assistant superintendents only in the area of staff personnel, and then only with respect to the level of command accorded to assistant superintendents, and with respect to North Carolina public education region. Generally, the results indicated that the duties and responsibilities of assistant superintendents in North Carolina public schools are essentially uniform throughout the state, within the context of the variables measured in this study. For future research with respect to the duites and responsibilities of assistant super intendents in North Carolina public schools, it was recommended that a pilot study be conducted to identify new and potentially significant differentiation variables.
The research methodology employed in the conduct of this study is explained in this chapter. This explanation is pro vided in discussions related to research design and sample selection, data collection, and data analysis.
Research Design...