Factors Impacting African-American Females to the Superintendency

Despite the dominance of females in the classroom, few have broken the “glass ceiling” to hold the highest position in K-12 education - superintendency (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, & Vanneman, 2001; Glass, 2000). The governing body for education in Texas, the Texas Education Agency (TEA), identified 1,247 state school districts that were led by female school superintendents, but only eight, or less than 1%, identified as an African American women (TEA, 2014). With such a small population, there is a need to examine the experiences these women have had as they serve in both rural and urban school districts not only in Texas, but in various regions across the United States (Tallerico, 2000).