Pursuing and obtaining a superintendency is more complicated than any other educational employment process. Marilyn Tallerico demonstrates how to navigate this challenging terrain by providing an insider's view of how superintendents are found, selected, and viewed.

Research-based and very practical, Accessing the Superintendency shows how to overcome the invisible selection criteria, the unwritten rules, and the biases that often shut out qualified women and racially and ethnically diverse candidates.

Introduction Part I: Demystifying Selection Practices 1.How Do School Boards Prepare for the Search? 2. What is Recruiting & Interviewing Candidates All About? 3. How Are Hiring & Powerbrokering Related? Part II: Preventing & Promoting Advancement 4. What Do Sex and Color Have to Do With It? 5. Where Are the Biases? 6. How Do Consultants & School Boards Help? 7. How Can You Get the Most Out of the Network? Conclusions: So What? Appendix: Research Methods References Index