School board member definitions of accountability

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the differing ways in which nonprofit charter and traditional public school board members define the concept of accountability in the school or schools they oversee. The findings speak to the governing consequences of shifting oversight of public education from democratically elected bodies to unelected nonprofit governing boards. Design/methodology/approach The authors use originally collected survey data from democratically elected school board members and nonprofit charter school board members in Minnesota to test for differences in how these two populations view accountability. Open-ended survey questions are coded according to a previously used accountability typology. Findings The authors find that charter school board members are more likely than traditional public school board members to define accountability through high stakes testing as opposed to staff professionalization and bureaucratic systems. Originality/value The results speak to the link between board governance structure and accountability in the public education sector, providing new understanding on the way in which non-elected charter school board members view their accountability function.

Governing concept or political buzzword? Contested perceptions of local control

“…Prior to formal hypothesis testing, I explore how local government leaders define local control by examining answers to the open‐ended question: “Based on your experience, how do you define local control in government?” Examining the open‐ended responses will give some context to the models regarding definition alignment. The use of open‐ended questions to tease out the range of understanding of a contested concept was used in previous research by Ford and Ihrke (2016, 2017). A coding of open‐ended responses was conducted using a strategy based on an initial reading of all responses, the pre‐emption epochs listed by Goodman et al, (2020), Richardson Jr.'s (2011) conception of autonomy and home rule, Perlman's (2016) discussion of home rule, and consultation with the previously mentioned pilot group of Wisconsin officials.…”

“…Specifically, all three dependent variables measure perceived agreement between governing actors. Colloquially, I am testing what factors lead to governing actors being on the same page (see: Ford & Ihrke, 2017). I seek to explain variables measuring perceptions of the level of local control in relation to personal preferences, in relation to colleagues' perceptions, and in relation to state government.…”