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…

The purpose of this study was to research both imperially validated and conceptualized school board best practices, as well as their utilization within Missouri school districts from differing geographic regions, with differing total school populations and differing level of school success. School success for this study was defined as district…

Due to the increasing accountability associated with the No Child Left Behind legislation and the new board governance policy of the fifth cycle of the Missouri School Improvement Program, the issue of school board accountability has emerged as an important topic. At this point, the issue of school reform has reached the school board level. In…

Through research, data collection, and analysis, this descriptive project examined rural Missouri school board governance practices. The study focused on Missouri rural schools with a student population of 400 to 1000. Effective school board members, as questionnaire respondents, were identified as having served rural Missouri school districts…

Policy changes in state higher education since the early 1980s are described. For each innovation, the problem and impetus for change are described, as well as the results. Contact persons and some publications are identified. While two states addressed both quality and flexibility in fiscal reform, 13 states had incremental reforms addressing…

Issues pertinent to evaluation of statewide boards of higher education are considered, and the cases of South Carolina and several other states are covered. Evaluation is seen as a form of accountability. Reasons why better, more formal evaluation of statewide boards will be important to a wide range of constituencies--such as trends toward…