High-stakes tests can set a clear, challenging hurdle for students and schools, while increasing the numbers of failing kids. Costs and benefits include increased equity, clear and focused curricula, efficient use of resources, achievement-based school personnel evaluations, limited local decision making, narrow curriculum, and favored course…

In Kansas City, Kansas, the school system wanted to do more than end two decades of court-ordered desegregation plans. The district created a comprehensive and integrated plan for educational improvement that can be used by any district. A three-pronged approach to school planning focuses on programs, demographics, and facilities. (MLF)

A school board's responsibility is to formulate wise educational policy in response to the will of the people. The superintendent should develop and lead a team with high morale toward the achievement of educational objectives that are jointly forged by the board, community representatives, administration, and faculty. (Author/MLF)

Since each situation is unique, no general statement can be validated about which partner in the board-superintendent relationship is dominant. The opportunity now exists for boards and superintendents to work together with mutual respect to improve public education for everyone. (Author/MLF)

A number of school boards have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy out their superintendents' contracts. Offers advice from school board members, superintendents, search consultants, and school attorneys on the issues of contract buyouts. Calculates the cost of contract buyouts in four large school systems. (MLF)

Briefly outlines five ways to ensure accountability: scrutinize student achievement, conduct surveys of teacher and community attitudes toward district performance, carefully review how funds are spent, ask administrators to look closely at programs, and evaluate administrators and teachers regularly. (Author/JM)

Argues that school boards must focus on improving academic achievement within the context of budget cuts, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that educational vouchers are constitutional. Recommends affirmative school-board action such as developing school-community partnerships. (PKP)

Requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act present school districts with a massive lesson in data-driven decision-making. Technology companies offer data-management tools that organize student information from state tests. Offers districts advice in choosing a technology provider. (MLF)

There is a profound cultural chasm between K-12 and higher education. School Board members can play an important role in calling attention to interlevel connections. Major issues include equity factors and lack of congruence between the expanding state standards movement and college admissions and placement practices. (MLF)

Four critical first steps to establish trust among school boards, schools, and the public are: (1) building a community-wide consensus about the essential purposes of schools; (2) agreeing on how to provide choices for minority viewpoints; (3) selecting key education leaders; and (4) providing these leaders with the freedom they need to do the…

Although President Bush favors continuous testing, headlines reflect an intense, growing antitesting sentiment. One standard does not fit all, current systems are malfunctioning, and kids are short-changed. A recent report says abstinence-only sex education is ineffective; high teen birth rates underline the need for comprehensive approaches. (MLH)