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- Class Project
- TExES
- Superintendent’s Exam Review
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- Trava Baker
- Eddie Boggess
- Matt Branstine
- Cynthia Diaz
- Heidi Gromatzky
- Leland Zant
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- Provide Overview of TExES Superintendent’s Exam
- Provide Test Taking Strategies
- Provide Sample Scenarios and Questions
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- An examination to test the content and professional knowledge required
of an entry-level superintendent.
- The exam consists of two five hour sessions.
- Morning session which bases all test items on a District Profile
Packet.
- Organize this information before beginning to answer the questions.
- Packet consists of mission statements, newspaper articles, sticky
notes, letters, school report cards, AEIS campus and district reports,
school improvement plans, minutes from board meetings, agendas from
board meetings, district budgets, facilities reports, memoranda from
district staff, and agendas for campus and district site-based
committees.
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- Afternoon Session
- These questions are not related
to the questions from the morning session’s hypothetical school
district.
- This session deals with applying a general knowledge base to many
different situations and applying them to diverse school districts.
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- Answer every question as if you were in the “ideal” educational setting.
- Read all the questions carefully.
- In multiple response questions, pick the choice that is most inclusive.
- Don’t spend too much time on difficult questions – mark and come back.
- Leave no question unanswered.
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- Usually two choices are obviously incorrect.
- Avoid answer choices that use the words never, always, etc.
- In multiple response questions, eliminate the choices that have an
obviously incorrect choice.
- Eliminate choices that are not learner-centered.
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- Following are some sample scenarios and exam questions.
- We suggest that you read the scenario and answer the question(s) that
follow on a sheet of paper.
- The answers will be revealed at the end.
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- If both teachers are under term contracts, what action should the
- superintendent take?
- A. Ignore the episode.
- B. At Monday's meeting, inform Coach Oliver and Ms. Cruz that this type
of behavior is not acceptable and should not happen again.
- C. Ask for resignations from both teachers.
- D. Terminate both teachers without due process.
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- Informing the board member that funds were not budgeted for additional
staff.
- Informing the board that enrollment numbers do not justify additional
staff.
- Informing the board that the situation could be explored for the next
school year if enrollment increases.
- Informing the board member it is not the board's responsibility to
dictate the number of staff.
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- In order to avoid this situation in the future, the superintendent
should:
- A. Ask the board president to arrange board training.
- B. Ignore the suggestion until the next year.
- C. Hire an additional coach.
- D. Persuade the other board members the number of coaches is sufficient.
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- As a 16-year superintendent
of Watford City Independent School District, Mrs. Patricia Webb was a
positive and dynamic leader. She
had maintained staff morale throughout the years. As a result, she had community respect
for her common sense and good judgment.
- One of the district’s principals was Ryan Ramos, an Hispanic,
third-year principal. Ryan was
extremely well liked by the teachers under him. He was also very involved within his
school, the school’s extra curricular activities and within the
community.
- Each year the district’s principals are allowed two personal leave days
for “professional activities.”
One week prior to the use of their personal leave days,
principals were required to submit their request in writing or via
email.
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- On Friday morning Mrs. Webb
received a written request for a personal leave day from Ryan
Ramos. The day requested was for
the following Friday, November 5th. It so happened that this was the day
prior to the opening of deer season, and the superintendent knew that
Ryan was an avid hunter who had a lease some distance away and who would
not miss the opening day of the season.
- So that Ryan might clarify the personal leave day, Mrs. Webb called him
in and requested an explanation of the phrase “professional
activity.” Ryan became very
defensive, without offering to explain.
Ryan thundered, “If you don’t give me the leave day, I’ll go to
LULAC!” Before Patricia could
reply, Mr. Ramos slammed the office door and was gone.
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- How should Superintendent Webb handle this incident?
- Call LULAC before Mr. Ramos does.
- Call Mr. Ramos back into her office to discuss the leave more at length.
- Grant Mr. Ramos the day. However,
require him to submit proof that he actually attended a professional
activity.
- Apologize to him for questioning him.
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- Dr. Giesen, Parshall
Independent School District’s long-time superintendent, announced on the
opening day of in-service training in August, that he had hired an
outside consultant, undisclosed to the principals or other staff
members, to help every staff member develop a set of performance
objectives for each class that they teach.
- In discussion, one teacher asked, “Is there anything wrong with our
teaching? Is there a reason why
we have to spend hours writing objectives? Our students are doing well on the
TAKS.”
- “Well,” said a second teacher, “I can’t see how all this business will
improve my classroom. In fact,
because of the time it’ll take me to write objectives, it may hurt my
teaching. I should be working on
aligning my lesson plans.”
- Dr. Giesen abruptly stopped the questioning. “I will confer with all of the
principals and then you can direct your questions to them. Thank you for your time and have a
nice year.”
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- How should Dr. Giesen, the superintendent, have handled this
differently?
- Dr. Giesen should have informed the principals first.
- Dr. Giesen should have assigned members to an alignment committee.
- Dr. Giesen should have had the principals inform the teachers in their
buildings.
- Dr. Giesen should have asked the campus and district leadership to
develop a committee that shared the vision of the districts mission and
curricular goals and to define strategies for achieving them.
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- In response to poor science
TAKS scores, one elementary campus’ site-based committee suggested that
the school district build a science lab on that campus. They argued that
the lab would provide the needed “hands on” experience that would help
students perform better on the state assessments. The superintendent
should be aware of federal and state regulations that:
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- Require the architect to provide the contractor
- and sub-contractors for the construction project.
- Mandate the use of designs that ensure
- accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
- Mandate the use of construction materials
- produced in the United States wherever possible.
- Specify the minimum amount of insulation
- that must be used in walls and ceilings.
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- A mid-sized West Texas rural
school district has faced declining enrollment for the past five years.
Due to attrition, the district has been able to avoid a “reduction in
force” initiative. However, when preparing the district’s budget, the
superintendent determined that the district would have to use a
significant amount of the district’s fund balance to operate at its
current staffing level. Which of the following strategies should the
superintendent employ to address this situation?
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- The superintendent should use the fund balance needed to maintain an
effective student-teacher ratio in the district.
- The superintendent should convene a meeting with campus leadership to
discuss the situation and decide on a course of action.
- The superintendent should declare a financial exigency and consult with
the school district’s attorney to decide which teachers should be
released using the “reduction in force” guidelines.
- The superintendent should involve the local educational service center
in determining the best course of action.
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- The school board charges the
new superintendent with improving the abysmally low state assessment
scores of the small district.
Examining district data the superintendent makes several
conclusions. Which of the
superintendent’s findings is most indicative of the district’s poor test
scores?
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- Class size of all grade levels is above the state average.
- The majority of teachers, especially at the elementary level, have
taught in the district more than twenty years.
- There is a large discrepancy between student course grades and state
assessment scores.
- Staff professional development in past years has been limited to
workshops that teachers chose to attend.
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- Following an information
session on the financial crisis of regional service centers,
superintendents receive the new catalog for professional development
sessions to be offered during the school year. The superintendents should utilize
which two strategies when planning the coming year’s professional
development activities?
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- Survey staff for input into professional development activities.
- Review student test data to determine staff professional development
needs.
- Review staff evaluation data to determine professional development
needs.
- Review the catalog and direct each staff member to sign up for one or
more sessions in their subject area.
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- Mr. James Purdey is the new
superintendent at Boxwell ISD. The district is predominantly Hispanic
(97%) with a large migrant population (86%) and significant numbers of
economically disadvantaged children (90%). Mr. Purdey scheduled meetings
with parent and community groups as well as the district’s principals,
teachers, and student government representatives. Mr. Purdey also
reviewed TAKS data for the past several years.
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- His findings included:
- No one had any knowledge of the
contents of the DIP, although a current one was on file.
- Only the principals had knowledge of the CIP’s. Their goals seemed well
aligned with the district plan and the plans appeared to be complete and
thorough.
- Technology resources were modern and extensive. Each high school student
is issued a laptop computer with wireless Internet that can be accessed
anywhere on campus.
- The libraries are automated, however contain relatively few books.
- There are very few minority teachers. The turnover rate is very high
(25-30%), most teachers attended New Mexico colleges and have no
experience in Texas. Few teachers
live in Boxwell.
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- Approximately 10% of the resident student population transfer to other
school districts. These transfers are nearly all White students from
affluent families.
- The primary concern of the community groups is low property taxes. The
tax rate is $1.14.
- After assessing this data, Mr. Purdey decided that his primary goals
will be to encourage real stakeholder participation in campus and
district planning, to educate the teachers about TEKS/TAKS in order to
improve test performance, and to be in compliance with certification
requirements by the end of his first school year. Mr. Purdey also set
the goal to become a recognized district in two years.
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- In his effort to improve the
district’s teachers’ effectiveness and compliance with legal
requirements, Mr. Purdey should:
- Actively recruit minority teachers who are fully Texas certified.
- Apply for a waiver for extra in-service days to use for TEKS awareness
and vertical alignment of curricula.
- Use a portion of the Title I grant funds to help teachers become Texas
certified.
- Terminate all non-certified teachers at the end of the contract year to
underscore the importance of certification.
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- Which activity will have the most positive impact on the
- community’s perception of the school district?
- Calling community meetings to stress the importance of education.
- Writing articles for the local paper explaining the new direction the
school district is taking.
- Soliciting community, business, and parent members for the site-based
committees, holding regularly scheduled meetings, and providing
interpreters if needed.
- Requesting that the board set a much higher tax rate for the following
year because in education, like everything else, “You get what you pay
for.”
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- Mountain ISD has hired a new
female superintendent, Dr. Catherine Channing. She is the first
woman superintendent in the district. The district is a mid-size
school district with 1/4 White, 1/4 Black, 1/4 Hispanic and 1/4 other
students. The district is working on the perception of its
diversity. This is a borderline Chapter 42 school district.
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- The superintendent is getting ready for her first board meeting
- agenda. What should she include
in the agenda to keep the
- lines of communication open with the public?
- Include a public open forum at the beginning of the board meeting
agenda.
- Announce the agenda in the newspaper.
- Ask the board president for advice.
- Send a survey on everyone's e-mail.
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- Which strategies would best help a new superintendent with
- school board relations?
- Having dinner during executive sessions.
- Sending the board a district update weekly explaining important issues.
- Scheduling superintendent/board retreats involving team building.
- Sending board members to evaluate campuses.
- A. I and II only
- B. I, II and III only
- C. I and IV only
- D. III and IV only
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