While U.S. voters delivered a significant change in the 2024 federal elections, they opted for steady leadership at the state level. No state board of education shifted in partisan control, and only five seats saw a shift in political party out of 27 races that were contested in the general election. This policy update looks at the results of…

To address the question of how to develop the capacity for every instructional coach to provide job-embedded professional learning for every teacher and student, the Utah State Board of Education's quality instruction team designed and built a statewide 22 networked professional learning system that includes instructional coaches, local education…

In this article, we argue that ESSA provides a unique policy window for district-level leaders to advance an equity agenda by working closely with local community advocates. Drawing from a larger qualitative, multiple case study on the role of school boards in three U.S. Mountain West school districts, we focus on community advocacy committed to…

Background/Context: Mayoral control of large city school districts has become the newest form of school district reorganization. Researchers have documented how real and perceived crises have propelled mayors in Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington DC, amongst others, to redefine the role of board governance by situating the operations of districts…

Virtually every school district in the country is dealing with the need to reduce their budget. The process used to make those decisions varies from state to state but almost always includes a combination of short and long-term approaches. In many school districts the emphasis is on reducing individual budget line items and not filling vacant…

Locally controlled public schools are one of the cornerstones of our nation's democracy, yet many schools are not preparing students for success. Far too many students are not graduating, and many of those who do graduate are woefully unprepared for college or a meaningful career. Successfully initiating and sustaining meaningful improvements in…

Analysis of minutes of board of education meetings in all 31 rural Utah school districts found that rural boards tended to micromanage their districts, generally ignoring the larger leadership function of building consensus and fostering a sense of community. Discussions of educational reform movements and unstructured discussion with patrons…

This paper offers facts and figures on Utah's state of education for 2006. This paper contains the following: (1) Education Contacts; (2) Utah State Board of Education members; (3) Value of Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) for the 2005-06 school year; (4) Per Pupil Spending in Perspective (2003); (5) Public School Enrollment per district (October…

Many states have begun to use independent or outside hearing officers in public educator termination efforts, curtailing the exclusive role of local school boards as fact finders and judges. This paper reports the findings of a two-part study that: (1) investigated the statutory codes of all 50 states to determine the current procedural methods…

Some board members may not have considered whether e-mail is subject to state statutes ensuring that public business is done publicly. E-mail has great potential for exposing a district to liability. Sample open-meeting and/or public-record laws from several states, including California, Florida, and Virginia, are discussed. (MLH)

With the increase of interest in the rural public schools in all the States has come a desire for more effective rural school administration, to the ends that there may be a more economic use of school funds and that all children may have opportunities, both better and more nearly equal, to gain the preparation for life required by more rural…

Following consideration of many reports on the status of public education, the Utah State Board of Education announces its commitment to the reform of the content, processes, and standards of public education in Utah. The board sets as its primary goals the attainment of excellence in education and the improvement of productivity. The reform will…

The legislative authority for Navajo education is examined in this two-part report, designed to help the Navajo people attain meaningful control of the education of their youth, with the continued appropriate involvement of the federal and state governments. Part 1 summarizes the key provisions of the relevant sources of legal authority which…