One of the most important endeavors a school board will complete is the hiring of a district superintendent. This study focused on Northwest Arkansas school board members' perceptions of criteria used for hiring practices and review how or if they align with the professional leadership standards. The research concentrated on the 16 Northwest…

In this article, we examine how school district leaders bolster white supremacy by deploying white innocence, a discourse in which individuals or entities project a positive image of themselves while deflecting blame for racism. We focus on a school district that was the site of strategic and sustained advocacy from Black community members and…

States, systems, and colleges in the Great Lakes region have made important investments in basic needs, but more progress is needed. Addressing basic needs--which includes income, food, housing, health, mental health and well-being, child care, transportation, and technology--helps support college access and completion. The Urban Institute…

This study addresses a fundamental but neglected aspect of efforts to ensure quality and improvement in a decentralised school system: the relationship between the local education authority (LEA) and local school principals. Empirically, it is based on analysis of relevant documents and interviews with key actors in a Swedish LEA (a municipality),…

Despite research indicating significant challenges of market-based schooling, charter schools remain a growing trend in the United States. In this article, we examine an emerging market model: a K-12 system of charter schools under one charter board meant to serve as a city's school district. To assess the fit of the market model, we employed a…

This literature review examines the existing research on how school boards influence the organizational culture of the school system. This paper specifically addresses the areas how the Ontario Leadership Framework influences both policy and practice to influence the educational culture of Ontario's school system. The cornerstone of seminal work…

The study is a qualitative case study of school board members (SBMs )knowledge of school Mental Health (MH) issues including two points. First, it is unknown to what extent School Board Members are knowledgeable about contemporary MH issues. Second, it is unknown if SBM knowledge of School District Mental Health (SDMH) policy is representative of…

There is now an impetus for schools to be more effective for more students, meaning that being able to measure impact effectively is vital. Simultaneously, if innovations are found to be impactful, it is reasonable they should be scaled-up to enable other schools to benefit. It is appropriate, therefore, that in networked and self-improving school…

The usage of vaping products among middle school students has increased at alarming rates. Federal and state policymakers are addressing this crisis, including in Kansas, where the state board of education acted quickly to engage stakeholders on curbing youth vaping.

In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) with a clear mandate for democratic involvement in district goal setting and budgeting. School districts are expected to organize "meaningful engagement" of key stakeholders, including parents, students, educators, and the broader community, in…

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is required to submit this report to the Legislature regarding the status of existing charter schools, the number of petitions for new charter schools, and the action taken by school boards and DPI on petitions for new charter schools (see Wis. Stat. §115.28 (49)). This report offers the results…

This qualitative case study examines how board members make sense of federal accountability policies and how their sensemaking shapes their use of assessment data as a policy instrument. Deviating from previous work on practitioner sensemaking, the participants' interpretations of assessments did not align with their ensuing use of the data.…

The COVID-19 pandemic drew new attention to the role of school boards in the U.S. In this paper, we examine school districts' choices of learning modality -- whether and when to offer in-person, virtual, or hybrid instruction -- over the course of the 2020-21 pandemic school year. The analysis takes advantage of granular weekly data on learning…

School safety measures have become a significant concern in school districts, with efforts ranging from proactive strategies to reactive responses. This abstract delves into the contrasting approaches of proactive and reactive measures and examines their respective impacts on the culture and climate within schools. Proactive safety measures…

Public school board members are charged with the responsibility and accountability to provide governance-level advocacy for equity and excellence in public education. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of school board members in three K--8 school districts in the midwestern part of the United States regarding the 50+ year Race-Based…