The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of Texas Public School superintendents and school board presidents on the importance of leadership characteristics of the superintendency.

The questionnaire used in this study was developed by Dr. Douglas D. Wilson and modified by the researcher. Responses to a Likert Scale instrument and a nominal ranking of ten leadership characteristics were solicited from superintendents and school board presidents of Texas public schools. The population was superintendents and school board presidents from the 1031 Public School Districts of Texas. The population was divided into 95 large school districts (>10,000 students) and 936 small school districts (<10,000 students).

Data was then generated regarding the respondent’s perceptions of leadership characteristics. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney Tests for differences were used to determine if possible significant differences exist in the data. Results were reported using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 14.0).

Major findings of the study suggest: (1) Superintendents view the importance of instructional leadership, prior work experience in education, and effective school board relations significantly higher (p<.05) than school board presidents. (2) Superintendents of small schools view the importance of instructional leadership, prior work experience in education, and effective school board relations significantly higher (p<.05) than school board presidents of small schools. Conversely, school board presidents of small schools view the focus on professional development significantly higher (p<.05) than superintendents of small schools. (3) Superintendents of large schools view the importance of instructional leadership, comfort with media relations and politics, and effective school board relations significantly higher (p<.05) than school board presidents of large schools.

The study concluded that there are differences in the perceptions of superintendents and school board presidents of Texas public school districts concerning the importance of superintendent leadership characteristics. The study also shows that the leadership characteristics perceived as most important by both superintendents and school board presidents are different based on the size of the school district. It was also concluded that further study was needed to obtain a higher response rate from the population and conduct further demographic analyses of Texas public school leadership.