Supporting Indiana school districts: University Search Team
For over 60 years, Indiana’s University Search Team has offered Indiana school districts a valuable, comprehensive, cost-free consultant service helping school boards find, vet, and choose the best candidates for school superintendent.
The Purdue University College of Education is an integral part of this four-member collaborative team.
“The University Search Team is one of the many examples of Purdue’s College of Education giving back to the citizens of Indiana,” said Phillip J. VanFossen, interim dean of the College. “The team helps Indiana local school boards go through the process of selecting and hiring a new superintendent.”
“We provide a search firm service to Indiana local school boards at no charge, thanks to the support of Purdue’s College of Education and the three other member institutions,” said former school superintendent Alice Johnson, Purdue’s member on the current team and a clinical associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies.
The four-member team offers customized, multi-step assistance by discussing client school boards’ superintendent needs, developing application materials, screening candidates, ensuring legal compliance, and collaborating closely with the boards throughout the entire superintendent search process.
The team is a collaborative effort providing educational leadership staff members from the Colleges of Education at Purdue University, Ball State University, Indiana University, and Indiana State University. Current team members are:
- Alice Johnson, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Purdue University College of Education
- Marilynn Quick, Professor Emeritus, Department of Educational Leadership, Ball State University Teachers College
- Michele Moore, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Indiana University School of Education
- Terry McDaniel, Professor Emeritus, Department of Educational Leadership, Indiana State University Bayh College of Education
All of the team members have previously served as public school teachers, administrators, and superintendents, and some are also former school board members.
“This experience and background really brings a lot of expertise to the role and allows them to connect authentically with school board members,” Johnson said.
Interim Dean Phillip J. VanFossen and Dr. Alice Johnson discuss the Indiana University Search Team.
A significant benefit of the search team is that it provides its search services free of charge.
“If school corporations were to hire a similar professional search team it would cost them $5,000 to just collect applications, and full services could cost up to $20,000,” said Johnson. “We give 20-30 hours of service per district, including the in-person consultations and candidate reviews. It’s really a personalized, tailored approach and I think that’s what makes us so successful.”
“Part of Purdue’s land-grant mission is to build reciprocal relationships through engagement, which the Search Team does literally from start to finish of the process,” said VanFossen. “That’s a valuable thing and again reflects on the many ways that Purdue University and the College of Education give back to the citizens of Indiana.”
More information: https://education.purdue.edu/university-search-team/
Source: Alice Johnson, alicejohnson@purdue.edu