Women have traditionally been underrepresented as school district superintendents. Male superintendents are often thought to have skill in managing facilities and budgets while women have often been viewed as better instructional leaders. This study used surveys to research whether or not superintendents themselves perceive their skills significantly differently and whether or not their board chairpersons perceive their male and female superintendents' skills significantly differently on measures that most positively affect student achievement.

The study sought to identify superintendents' characteristics from the meta-analysis conducted by Marzano and Waters (2009) into a few attributes that superintendents possess that positively affect student achievement. A rating scale was used to measure the effectiveness of superintendents regarding the skills that most positively affect student achievement which are instructional goal-setting, monitoring achievement, managing resources to support instruction, and fostering the appropriate level of building-level autonomy.

This study is important because it supports earlier studies that examined the differences between how male and female superintendents and school board chairpersons rated superintendents on certain work-related tasks. On the skills most positively affecting student achievement, the female superintendents rated themselves higher than the male superintendents rated themselves on all four categories of skills. In the area of monitoring achievement, female superintendents rated themselves significantly higher than male superintendents rated themselves.

School board chairpersons also rated their superintendents on those four categories of skills. School board chairpersons rated both their male and female superintendents higher than they rated themselves in every category except female superintendents' management of resources. In that category, female superintendents rated themselves higher than their school board chairpersons rated them; however, the difference was not statistically significant.

There was a statistical difference in how female superintendents ( M = 3.18) rated themselves on monitoring achievement compared to the male superintendents (M = 2.88), t(42) = -2.275, p = .028. The t test for independent samples illustrated that the school board chairpersons (M = 3.46) did rate superintendents significantly higher than the superintendents (M = 3.21) rated themselves in the category of instructional goal-setting, t(42) = -2.282, p = .025. Male and female superintendents are not perceived by school board chairpersons significantly differently on the tasks that are most important in positively affecting student achievement.