The role of executive search consultants in the selection of school superintendents

The purposes of this study were to describe the role of executive search consultants in the superintendent selection process and compare their roles to the roles of executive search consultants in a previously conducted study. This study was patterned after a similar study completed in 1986, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, by James Rickabaugh.

Unlike the 1986 study, which concentrated on the Upper Mid-West region of the United States, this study was conducted using consultants from a geographic area consisting of Upper Mid-Atlantic states including: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia.

The role of executive search consultants from those states was compared with data from the 1986 study to determine whether the role of executive search consultants has changed or remained the same.