State takeovers of public-school districts are a controversial method to help fix struggling schools across the United States. This article considers the reasons behind takeovers, their effects on schools and communities, and both the positive and negative aspects of state involvement. We examine various state laws and specific examples from 3…

In "Navigating School Board Politics," Carrie R. Sampson examines the political power of the US education system's publicly elected school boards, the reality of how they apply that power, and the resounding impact of their governance. The work makes the case that school boards, as both the direct link between local communities and…

Prohibited concept laws have a chilling effect on teaching, resulting in the erasure of social justice topics; however, the extent to which district-level actors support such laws or the role they play in perpetuating the effect is unclear. I offer a framework for understanding how district-level policy messaging contributes to the chilling effect…

On September 22, 2020, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13950, titled "Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping." While the order has been revoked, as of May, 2022, 34 states, including Iowa (HF 802), had passed or were considering legislation prohibiting the use of critical lenses, such as Critical Race Theory, in public K-12 schools. In…

School rezoning is the process of drawing and redrawing school attendance boundaries (SABs). However, studies explicitly focused on changing SABs through rezoning or other mechanisms are spread across multiple bodies of literature. Rezoning is also a politically contentious issue governed by local school boards, tying it to conceptual work on the…

Amy Yarborough, a veteran teacher and curriculum resource leader in a rural district in Virginia, facilitates a professional learning community focused on social justice and equity-oriented instructional practices. When allegations of teaching critical race theory are reported via the state's email tip line and community social media groups, Amy…

Growing interest in the potential of education research-practice partnerships (RPPs) as a promising strategy for increasing the relevance and use of research has led the field to create an expanding body of literature documenting both the promise and the potential perils of RPPs. Insightful frameworks abound, outlining the structural and…

This study provided a detailed analysis of why newly elected school board members ran for school board in New York from 2017-2022 and the governance challenges they expected to face. Secondary survey data of 1,064 school board members collected by the New York State School Boards Association were examined to explore how personal and professional…

The biggest threat to an equitable and prosperous American society is not a particular educational policy, but the gravitational pull of politics, explains Jonathan Collins. Before educational policy can be developed and put into place, the politics that drive education must be acknowledged and addressed. Violence is erupting at school board…

Drawing on longitudinal data of state K--12 education policymaker demographics, we examine education policymaking body diversity over time, and across states and institutional structures. Though dominated by white businessmen, females and professional educators increased their presence at the education policymaking table. There was little movement…

In an era where many states' postsecondary education governance dynamics are evolving, we set out to understand whether state-level governing boards with centralized governance functions affected institutions' decisions to engage in in-person instruction during the fall of 2020, the first fall of the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined sociopolitical…

Politically charged education issues roiled the 2022 races for seats on state boards of education, yet none of the boards flipped partisan control. However, majority parties expanded their representation on boards in Colorado, Kansas, and Utah so far. Of the 63 seats on the ballot for 12 state boards, 35 incumbent candidates were reelected. This…

Through the lens of the school board, this essay examines school governance dynamics as a southern, historically white public school district struggled to implement school desegregation. In 1976, the city of Waco simultaneously elected its school district's first trustees of Color, Dr. Emma Louise Harrison and Rev. Robert Lewis Gilbert. Harrison…

The policy landscape around curriculum selection and implementation is thorny: the federal government cannot mandate any state or local curricula, state policy varies widely, and local schools and districts often lack the capacity to support and sustain detailed reviews of materials and ongoing teacher training in quality curricula. Cultural and…

Voter turnout for school board elections is historically low, with tiny percentages deciding who governs schools. Columnist Jonathan E. Collins proposes a new federal holiday, School Board Election Day, to increase voter turnout and public involvement and interest in public schools. School board elections would be held on the same day nationally,…