In this article, Arnold Shober asserts that despite the special challenges of public governance, state boards can effectively serve as beacons of policy. An effective board is driven by effective members whatever its structure, and effective members are committed to a shared agenda and the larger project of providing direction for a state's education system. The experience of boards over the last 40 years yields some takeaways regarding their structure. First, appointed boards can take on bigger, longer-term projects because members do not need to spend time on the electoral part of the job. Second, elected boards can be very effective if they have natural links to the legislature or governor, likely through a shared party. Shober goes on to point out that board governance structures encourage effectiveness, but all boards can take steps to improve. Boards should heed observations drawn from the nongovernmental world: (1) effective boards present a unified vision for education; (2) effective boards keep lines of communication open with the governor's office and the state education agency (SEA); and (3) effective boards capitalize on the expertise of their members. Shober concludes there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, but experience shows that state boards can offer effective governance amid the tumult of modern American education.