Roles and responsibilities of local school board members in relation to student achievement

Delagardelle, Mary

doi:10.31274/rtd-180813-12019

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More recent school board research explores the link between school board governance and academic performance. Delagardelle (2008) identified linkages between the governance behaviors of school board members, school culture, and student outcomes. Grissom (2014), in a study of California school districts, linked board member conflict to lower student test scores.…”

Section: Background and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing School Board Governing Dynamics in Small Rural and Suburban Districts

Ford,

Ihrke

2020

Public Administration Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper we use the case of U.S. school boards to compare small group governing dynamics across suburban and rural school boards serving fewer than 1,000 students. Using a national dataset, we find that rural school board members are less diverse, perceive higher levels of interpersonal conflict, and higher levels of interest group influence compared to their suburban colleagues. The results reveal the need to consider contextual factors such as urbanity when researching small group governing dynamics on public boards, and the importance of place-based policy making. The results are relevant to scholars of small group dynamics, municipal governance, and school boards.

show abstract

Section: Background and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing School Board Governing Dynamics in Small Rural and Suburban Districts

Ford,

Ihrke

2020

Public Administration Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Board presidents report that their boards spend significant time on complaints related to taxes, athletics, teachers, and test scores (Glass, 2001). Delagardelle (2006) found that 56 percent of the time in board meetings was spent on administrative matters, while only 3 percent was spent on policy development. Delagardelle and Alsbury (2008) described traditional board roles such as financing schools and dealing with constituent interests and concerns but asserted that boards need to adopt leadership roles that more directly address improved student achievement.…”

Section: Self-evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Problem: Low Achieving Districts and Low Performing Boards

Lee

Eadens

2014

IJEPL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Effective school districts maintain superintendent and school board collegiality which can foster success and connectedness among members. Delagardelle and Alsbury (2008) found that superintendents and board members are not consistent in their perceptions about the work the board does, and Glass (2007) found that states do not require boards to undergo evaluation for effectiveness. In the current study, 115 board meetings were observed using the School Board Video Project (SBVP) survey, which was created in 2012 by researchers to uncover school board meetings’ effectiveness. MANOVA, Univariate ANOVA, and Pearson Chi-Square test results revealed significant differences between low-, medium-, and high-performing districts’ school board meetings. Evidence indicated that low-performing districts’ board meetings were: less orderly; had less time spent on student achievement; lacked respectful and attentive engagement across speakers; had board meeting members who seemed to advance their own agenda; had less effective working relationships among the governance team; had fewer board members who relied on the superintendent for advice and input; had one member, other than the board president, stand out for taking excessive time during meetings; and did not focus on policy items as much as high- and medium-performing school districts. The research concluded that more school board members from low-performing districts needed training to improve their effectiveness. Furthermore, highly refined and target-enhanced school board training programs might lead to lasting governance success and more effective teaming that could improve district, and ultimately, student achievement.

show abstract

“…As school boards have become a major focus point in national politics, due to battles over COVID-19 policies, book bans, and curriculum control, school boards have also been the subject of renewed attention in scholarly research (e.g., Christian, Jacob and Singleton 2022;Ford and Ihrke 2021;Grossmann et al 2021;Hartney and Finger 2022). There is a large body of existing research focused on school boards, particularly the impact school board decisions have on academic outcomes (Alsbury 2008;Ford and Ihrke 2016;Delagardelle 2008), financial outcomes (Berkman and Plutzer 2005), and school segregation (Diem, Frankenberg and Cleary 2015;Macartney and Singleton 2018). Even though the impact of school board policymaking on public education is well-documented, we do not have extensive individuallevel data on who school board members are, how they view their role as local elected officials, or how they approach the decision-making process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisanship and Professionalization: School Board Decision-Making in the Midst of a Pandemic

Kitchens,

Goldberg

2024

Urban Affairs Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the COVID-19 pandemic, school board members played a prominent role in deciding reopening plans. Using an original large-scale survey of board members, our goal is to understand how the polarized, political context of pandemic responses shaped the decision-making processes of members as they experienced dramatic increases in workload. We find school board members are much more likely to identify at the extremes of partisan identity, as strong Democrats or strong Republicans. How they identified mattered in who they trusted to tell them information, how much control they felt the board should have in the process of reopening plans, and who should interpret data about COVID. If the other party was in power at the state level, members from opposing parties had less trust in state sources. Most school board elections are nonpartisan, but that does not mean that the members themselves do not strongly identify with a party.

show abstract

Roles and responsibilities of local school board members in relation to student achievement

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Comparing School Board Governing Dynamics in Small Rural and Suburban Districts

Comparing School Board Governing Dynamics in Small Rural and Suburban Districts

The Problem: Low Achieving Districts and Low Performing Boards

Partisanship and Professionalization: School Board Decision-Making in the Midst of a Pandemic

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About