Thomas M. Cooley, the law was upheld. This decision led to a dramatic increase in the number of high schools operating both in Michigan and other states, which led to an increase in the number of superintendents. Early superintendents tended to focus on instruction, with "overall fiscal affairs, school building construction, and maintenance" remaining under school district control, becoming normal responsibilities of superintendents only in the early twentieth century. By the early twentieth century, superintendents emphasized business affairs. Important leaders in American education at the time were George D. Strayer, Ellwood P. Cubberley, and Edward C. Elliott, who all wrote doctoral dissertations on education finance at Columbia University in the first decade of the 20th century. Cubberley served as superintendent in San Diego and later taught at Stanford University, Strayer taught at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Elliott taught at the University of Wisconsin. In 1911, the idea of the superintendent as a separate professional emerged. The emergence of the superintendency was linked to the adoption of a business organizational model in education. Beginning in 1914, Columbia and other universities began to teach courses on educational administration, including school finance, business methods, budgeting, and organization. Cubberley wrote a book in 1916 on this "New Profession" and emphasized the role of superintendent as chief executive of schools. In 1914, the US Commissioner of Education wrote that the US was moving "unmistakably in the direction of a profession of educational administration as distinct from teaching." By 1925, journals and books on educational administration had adopted a view of superintendents as executives, as Cubberley had advocated. See also CEO of public schools Chancellor (education) Dean (education) National Association of School Superintendents Provost (education) Schoolmaster State education agency Vice-principal References Footnotes Bibliography Education and training occupations Positions of authority ja:教育長 zh:教育长