Date of Award
12-12-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Amany Saleh
Committee Members
David Holman; Gina Hogue; Joe Nichols
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2017 R88
Abstract
The proliferation of online educational leadership programs has led many aspiring principal candidates to complete their entire degree or licensure program online. While the online education is convenient and flexible for the learner, there is sparse research to determine the acceptability of online degrees in educational leadership, especially among school superintendents. School superintendents actively act as the gatekeepers into the field of educational leadership. The purpose of this study was to gather and analyze the perceptions of public school superintendents regarding online education for principals. The research questions posed sought to determine superintendent’s perceptions concerning the value of educational leaders who completed their degree/licensure online, their perceptions of an online candidate’s leadership abilities, and determine if there was a significant difference among superintendents’ perceptions related to gender, age, race, levels of experience, levels of education, school district sizes, or socio-economic status. A nation-wide survey to assess superintendents’ perceptions of online education for principals was distributed to 16,702 public school superintendents across the United States. A total of 2,205 responses were received which yielded a 13.2% response rate. The analysis indicated superintendents held a negative bias toward online degrees and online principal candidates’ leadership skills were not perceived to be similar to their traditional counterparts. The analysis also revealed significant differences among superintendents in all subgroups but gender. The findings are able to produce a profile of school superintendents who generally have positive and negative perceptions of online educational leaders.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Rutledge, David, "Superintendents’ Perceptions of Online Education for Principals" (2017). Student Theses and Dissertations. 545.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/545
