The many pressures facing school districts -- academic and social-emotional recovery from the pandemic, educator shortages, fragmented funding streams and programs, and more -- can easily overwhelm educators and distract from the core work of instruction and student learning. Locally elected school boards, the governing bodies responsible for…

For this comprehensive literature review, we begin by framing our study with a scholarship review of the theorizing of place-based leadership and rural administrators. We then synthesize research on the practice and experiences of district administrators, including superintendents, school boards, and other ancillary leaders. We identify multiple…

Between 2007 and 2017, the suicide rate among young people ages 10-24 increased by 56 percent, making it the second leading cause of death in the United States for this age group. State boards of education must ensure that students have the supports, environments, and education necessary to thrive. To lay the foundation, these policymakers can…

As school board meetings are integral sites of local education policymaking, scholars must consider how structural racism manifests in these spaces across various district contexts. We examine how racialized institutional logics undergird the interactions between majority-Black district leadership and a local Black community during school board…

The school district superintendency is one of the most challenging occupations within public education today and is characterized by high turnover rates (Yates & De Jong, 2018). At times, a public school superintendent experiences difficulties leading to their departure. Examples of such difficulties that require strong leadership skills are…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore community engagement experiences as perceived by board members, the superintendent, and community members in a high-performing school district in North Texas. Interviews with ten participants (five current school board members, one past school board member, one district superintendent, and…

For decades, Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) has blatantly disregarded and ostracized Black caregivers and community members who have attempted to address concerns about the educational experience of Black students. The only moderately successful strategy was political activism led by Dr. Barbara Sizemore in the 1970s to secure a board majority,…

Democratically elected school boards in the United States play a crucial role in school governance because they enable community voice in educational practices and programs. Research on locally controlled boards finds they can be undemocratic and unproductive. However, little research has been conducted in rural or small towns, where local control…

Emergency room (ER) visits for 12- to 17-year-olds suspected of attempting suicide increased 31 percent during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This trend was especially pronounced for girls, whose ER visits after suspected attempts were 50.6 percent higher in the winter of 2021 than during the…

The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) convened its Task Force on Early Childhood Education in the larger context of educational reform of the 1980s, which was characterized by two competing perspectives. One focused on state-mandated testing and increased graduation requirements, in response to the alarm sounded by the…

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…

Media reports suggest that parent frustration with COVID school policies and the growing politicization of education have increased community engagement with local public schools. However, there is no evidence to date on whether these factors have translated into greater engagement at the ballot box. This paper uses a novel data set to explore how…

Purpose: In the wake of school board protests nationwide, it is essential for educational leaders, policymakers, and researchers to understand locally controlled educational governance. The stability of educational districts depends on superintendents navigating relationships with their school boards, yet little research exists that addresses…

Approved by the Kansas State Board of Education in 2017, the school redesign project has seen more than 160 schools to reimagine their learning models in a state-led, multiyear process. Annual cohorts named for NASA lunar missions, the fourteen schools in seven districts that formed the initial Mercury cohort engaged in intensive planning and…

Background: District wellness policies provide an avenue to advance the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The extent to which wellness policies currently align with WSCC is unclear; to-date, tools have been unavailable to examine this issue. Methods: We reviewed written health-focused policies among 37 school districts in…