For the last decade, in districts big and small, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has emerged as the largest private funder of educational efforts. This began with an initiative around small schools in the early to mid-2000s, mostly abandoned now, and has gained traction in the past few years in areas such as teacher evaluation, the Common…

The purpose of the research on which this paper is based is to develop fundamental understanding of the problem-solving behavior of school superintendents, given the political character of their work environment. Data drawn from interviews with a school superintendent and a long-standing consultant to school boards are relied on as the basis for…

Discusses the political aspects of educational policy formation and describes the governance of public education in the state of New York. (JG)

This case study documents how the school board of the city of New Rochelle, New York, handled change when it transmuted from being appointed to being elected. Local policy implications undergird such a transition. Specifically, a review of political influences and outcomes on school board policy and how the board and the city's politicians coped…