180 CRITICAL THEORY AND LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
culture, including an authoritative, bureaucratic, business mindset of values and beliefs. As
superintendents moved from manager to statesman, which increased the power of
superintendents and lessened local community control (Kowalski, 1999). The fourth phase of
the human relations movement brought to light new perspectives on organizational behavior
(Hanson, 2003; Hoy & Miskel, 2005), another shift in roles occurred for superintendents. role
shifting, according to Callahan, encouraged superintendents to be social scientists. During this
time, school leadership preparation programs renewed their purpose of providing aspiring
superintendents with “a greater sensitivity to large social problems through an
interdisciplinary approach involving most of the social sciences’’ (Kellogg Foundation, 1961,
p. 13). Callahan (1964) warned that superintendents might not be equipped to see or
understand where they were going with their role as social scientists.
In the early 1990s, scholars studying reform efforts (Henkin, 1993; Murphy, 1991, 1994)
concluded that superintendents must function as primary change agents for their school
communities. Making and sustaining local reform efforts as primary change agents
emphasized the importance of superintendents understanding and serving the diverse
community and institutional cultures they served. However, creating and sustaining change
are risky moves for superintendents. Many superintendents do not have an in-depth
understanding of organizational change (Sarason, 1996); and most have not experienced
leading school communities as primary change agents (Murphy, 1994).
Impetus to the shift in superintendents playing the role of primary change agents is the
increasing numbers of diverse student populations throughout schools in the United States.
Over the past 40 years, scholars continued to investigate potential consequences for increasing
diverse populations in schools (Grady, Foley, & Barnes, 2004; Hrabowski, 2004; Rothman,
2004; Stedman, 1993), including academic disparities for racial minority groups, non-English
speaking students, and children living in poverty (National Center for Education Statistics, or
NCES, 2005; Education Commission of the States, 2005). Schools will encounter four
demographic changes including: (a) growing numbers of racial minorities, (b) children living
in poverty, (c) female-headed families, and (d) children for whom English is a second
language (NCES, 2005; National Center for Children in Poverty, 2005; U.S. Census Bureau,
2005; Vernez & Kropp, 1999). With poverty being most prevalent among Black and Latino/a
children, schools serving children living under these conditions will be directly impacted by
the consequences associated with living in such conditions (homelessness, priorities focusing
on survival, change in student residency, and limited resources) (National Center for Children
in Poverty, 2005).
With these demographic changes in mind, superintendents who lead schools in the 21st
century will also experience changes in their role to serve increasingly diverse schools
(Kowalski, 2003; Young & Creighton, 2002), as well as renew visions for preparation
programs that will build on rigorous standards that systematize the expected competencies of
aspiring leaders (Grogen & Andrews, 2002). As superintendents come to understand their
emerging role as the primary voice of the school community, they will be held responsible for
promoting the values of a democratic society (Bjork & Kowalski, 2005). Developing a deep
democracy within schools and enhancing educational outcomes includes implementing
effective instruction and student achievement for all students, keeping in mind the increasing
numbers of children attending schools from diverse backgrounds (children living in poverty,
speaking languages other than English, and racial minorities groups). The heightened
awareness of meeting the needs of all children is in part due to federal mandates, such as No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002); and the Council of Chief State School Officers (1996)
(CCSSO)’s intension to create a “common core of knowledge, dispositions, and performances