This guide outlines the careful considerations and illustrative cases that help board members and campus leaders better understand the flash points surrounding freedom of speech, academic freedom, and the tensions between these free expression rights and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the present campus environment. It offers governing boards…

The changing education landscape in England, combined with a more rigorous form of governor regulation in the form of the Ofsted 2012 Inspection Framework, are together placing more demands than ever before on the 300,000 volunteer school governors in England. These school governors are, in many cases, directly accountable to the Secretary of…

The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the decision-making and policy development of local governing boards acting in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered through open-ended items in a mixed-methods survey and through a focus group interview. This research sought to…

When school-level expenditure data are made public beginning with the 2018-19 school year, many in the system will be caught off guard. District and school leaders are largely unprepared to engage on the issues that the new data will raise, including equity, spending trade-offs, and the link between money and school outcomes. This article…

The last three decades of board research has embarked on various aspects of school boards (Alsbury, 2008b; Delagardelle, 2008; Resnick & Bryant, 2010; Strauss, 2018) including characteristics of effective boards (Alsbury & Gore, 2015; Dervarics & O'Brien, 2016), importance of targeted school board trainings (Cook, 2014; Gann, 2015;…

Purpose: To investigate how and in what way local governance of education is consequential to the work of changing public schools. The focus is on the board of education meeting as a ritual performance where authority is socially negotiated to manage the emotional and symbolic interactions that shape the district organization. Research Design:…

In 1995, during the process of democratization, Mongolia established a Law on Education and a Law on Higher Education. These laws positioned the board of directors as the ultimate decision-making body within each university and stipulated that the board's membership include the representatives of the university's founder, faculty members,…

This study of rural stakeholders' perspectives related to college and career readiness exposes a nuanced dynamic that extends beyond pragmatic concerns for preparing rural students for the future. As college preparatory courses "crowded out" Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings, stakeholders voiced a concomitant sense of losing…

This case was written for graduate students, specifically for individuals seeking school principal licensure. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced school organizations, particularly building and district leaders, to modify and alter the traditional educational model. School district leaders hosted virtual town hall meetings to receive community input…

Student voice can be a powerful tool in urban schools. Student voice programs engage students in the educational policies and practices that impact their lives and provides educators a glimpse into the experiences and needs of students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. However, successful student voice programs rely upon adult…

This article examines how school boards in New Jersey navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, which also coincided with the national trauma and reactions related to the George Floyd murder and subsequent backlash. The politicization of issues during that first year of the pandemic foreshadowed profound changes in the world of many school boards in New…

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…

College students frequently serve on boards that hear cases of alleged student misconduct. These students contribute to decisions that can affect their peers' lives and make their colleges vulnerable to litigation and negative media coverage. It is critical that student board members carefully interpret all information presented in disciplinary…

In this research brief, the National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education looks at indicators of school board effectiveness. From this research, it is clear that school boards in high-achieving districts exhibit habits and characteristics that are markedly different from boards in low-achieving districts. In the most dramatic…

In this autoethnographic research study, I examined my journey as an experienced superintendent in developing an effective relationship with the Board of Education in a new school district. This study examined the relevant research on the importance of the relationship between the Board and the superintendent of schools, the characteristics of a…