Public dissatisfaction with school boards, which started building in the 1980s with the publication of "A Nation At Risk," is now evidenced by calls for national standards and accountability measures. This paper presents an overview of the changing school board and how some boards have reformed themselves. The paper discusses ways in which…

This report describes a study of a rural school district that received national press coverage for an administrative crisis that began with the termination of a longtime district teacher, involved resignations and recalls from the board and the superintendency, and led to intensive conflicts among teachers, school board members, district…

The literature on collective bargaining in public education typically argues whether such bargaining is good public policy or bad, sound or unsound, and so forth. No studies to date have measured the actual impact of differing kinds of collective bargaining legislation on local school boards' decisionmaking powers. This study examined whether two…

Since 1992, Maine has received National Science Foundation Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) program monies. SSI is a model for improvement of mathematics and science education based on systemic reform. The SSI initiative in Maine has created seven "Beacon School" sites that vary in size and location including high poverty areas, urban…

This paper contains two sections, each with a different author, that address the need to increase the effective role of school boards in public school governance. Section 1, by David K. Wiles, argues that most school boards are becoming increasingly irrelevant in educational policymaking and offers a radical alternative to the present arrangement…

Although serving on a school board is frequently a thankless and difficult task, good board members must be recruited, since the elected school board is a cornerstone of our representative form of government and is a central element of local control. A recent increase in board member turnover is assignable to the large amount of time it takes to…

During his years on an urban school board, the author, a sociologist specializing in education, found conditions that were completely reversed from those ascribed to school boards by Norman D. Kerr and other analysts. The school board election campaigns observed by the author, unlike those studied by Kerr, were interesting and highly organized…

This report suggests that state boards of education are best able to make budgetary cuts after consulting professional staff, identifying basic educational objectives and goals, and determining which programs contribute most to the largest number of students. A board's decisions are facilitated by such legislation as Utah's Special Purpose…

The belief that structural change providing for the representation of minority parents in urban school districts would improve educational services for their children has led to an emphasis on school-system controlled or affiliated channels for participation. This emphasis, based on assumptions about parent participation in suburban districts, has…

With the basic assumption that reduction in force is inevitable, this paper discusses the legal ramifications as well as an orderly procedure for implementing reduction in force. Recent litigation with regard to reduction in force action falls in the broad categories of constitutional questions, statutory law, and contract provisions.…

The purpose of this study was to examine contributing factors influencing superintendent tenure among Texas public school superintendents. The results of the Cox Regression analysis revealed that strained relationships with the school board president, not being able to get decisions made at the Board level, and superintendent/school board…

A survey of 105 rural school superintendents in Colorado investigated areas significant to success in and satisfaction with the superintendency in rural school districts. These areas included school district background, perceptions of the rural superintendency, future plans of respondents, governance issues, board-superintendent relations,…

Even though public school districts are structured with the expectation of responsive governance, most school boards are not particularly responsive to their constituents. School boards from politically contentious districts tend to be more responsive, but they have even less success challenging the dominance of the superintendent than do less…

This study investigated whether some school boards create higher student achievement than others, studying districts with schools that ranked very high or very low on standardized achievement tests for three academic years. Achievement indicators included percentage of students meeting proficiency standards on the statewide curriculum based…

Background: In June 2002, the State of Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) passed Public Act 02-119, An Act Concerning Bullying Behavior in Schools and Concerning the Pledge of Allegiance. Section 1 mandated that each local and regional board of education (school district) develop a policy to address bullying in its schools. Conn. Gen. Statute…