On June 7, 2007, the Antioch University board of trustees declared that Antioch College, an independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, was in a state of financial exigency, and, two days later, voted to suspend college operations after the next academic year. After that year, the board oversaw the closing of the college while…

This article presents the story of Wilson College, the only college in the United States where a group of alumnae took the trustees to court over the issue of the announced closing and won the case. The court reversed the trustees' decision on the grounds that the college had failed to seek approval from the court before announcing the change in…

The purpose of The Arizona Long-Range Strategic Educational Technology Plan is to map the future of the "education support systems" necessary for Arizona's children to succeed in today's world. The plan details goals and strategies for policy makers, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, Institutions of Higher…

Notes the increasing influence of conservative politics on education at the local school board level. Offers a fairy tale written by a group of educators that raises questions about autonomy, control, and the need for participation in the context of the current conservative climate. (SR)

West Virginia officials and Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. have been unable to reach agreement on how to accommodate a mandated late-in-the-year budget cut, with some officials questioning the move's legality and the governor rejecting the regents' proposed early closing for state colleges and universities. (MSE)

The performance funding approach mandated by the Texas state legislature and devised by the higher education coordinating board to appropriate resources to colleges and universities is explained, and the responses of institutions to it are discussed. Focus is on problems encountered and lessons learned. (MSE)

A survey of decentralization efforts of the central administrative boards in Sweden shows that over the past half-century, very little happened until the 1980s. As a result, administrative boards acquired fewer regulatory and more informative, activating, and investigative duties. This paper describes the relationships of three national…

In a Foundations of Education course, teachers incorporated experiential learning in an extended exercise culminating in a school board meeting simulation. The exercise was designed to expose students to the varied roles of stakeholders in a typical school district and to challenge them with complex educational issues such as school funding and…

Although numerous theories have been proffered, to date activist boards are an empirically unexamined force in public higher education governance. Using the concept of institutional entrepreneurship, this case study examines the reciprocal role that board members and staff played in the organizational development of board activism. In the case of…

In 1997, Milgram and three other university mathematicians substantially revised the draft California mathematics standards. Changes were accepted by the state Board of education without seeking public or teacher input, circumventing public process. Content knowledge is no substitute for knowledge of how students develop mathematical…

This book gives attention to governance structures and the allocation of power in school systems. It argues for radical changes, such as abolishing boards of education, that would give parents, teachers, and the community greater voice in educational policy decisions. For schools to change, not only must a new governance structure replace the old,…

The firing of the director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia after a 20-year tenure and similar changes in other states have raised concerns that higher education policy boards face tightened political control. Some Virginia legislators feel the dismissal has left the council with little credibility, and substituted political…

This study identified seven categories of influence of local college governing boards, based on how they were established and their members appointed. Information was drawn from questionnaires sent to staffs of statewide coordinating bodies and multicampus governing boards; from statutes, local board policies, bylaws, and handbooks; and from…

Increasingly, states are restricting tuition growth through political pressure and statewide governing and coordinating boards. During the 1990s, California, Virginia, and New York all cut or restrained tuition, and recently Michigan, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey have restricted tuition growth either through legislation or intense…

Presents findings of a case study investigating participation of faculty, student, and support staff representatives on college boards in Alberta from an organizational politics perspective. Analyzes data collected at three colleges via interviews, document review, and meeting observations. Constrained by power exercised outside formal…