A Comparison of District School Superintendents' and School Board Chair's Attitudes toward Merit Pay Programs

Abstract

This study investigated the opinions of superintendents and school board chairs related to the management of incentive programs in a small southern state. Ninety one geographic school districts were surveyed. The first problem examined whether demographic data—years in education, years of experience with merit pay, and race— had an effect on superintendents' and school board chairs' favor or disfavor of merit pay programs. Also studied was whether there were significant differences between the groups in their opinions of the management of the local incentive programs. The functions of management described by Scanlon & Keys1 that were considered were planning, organizing, directing and controlling. The last task was to ask superintendents and school board chairs to rank criteria to award merit pay. Superintendents and school board chairs did not differ significantly in their opinions of the management of local incentive programs. The t test was used to examine the hypothesis at the .05 level of probability. Chi square, x2, was used to examine the hypotheses for the demographic data. At the .05 probability level, there were no significant differences between the groups related to the selected demographics. Both groups agreed merit pay should be a part of the local system, but neither group thought it was an enhancement for the provision of quality education. In ranking criteria to award merit pay, superintendents were more student centered in their responses and school board chairs ranked administrative items higher. Further research was recommended to study superintendents' and school board chairs' opinions related to the role merit pay has in the public education system.