4 Dec 2007, Thomas Alsbury
[This is an abstract of a paper given at the symposium School Board Research: Main Lines of Inquiry in Des Moines, Iowa, September 14-15, 2007. This abstract provides an overview of the paper. The full paper is published in Relevancy and Revelation: The Future of School Board Governance, by Rowman and Littlefield, Spring 2008.]
Federal and state centralization of policy, budget, legal, and, even instructional accountability control has further brought into question the already diminished role and responsibilities of locally elected school boards. School boards are viewed by some as so separate from classroom influence that they have become, at worst, meddlesome and districting and, at best, irrelevant. This chapter offers a review of the few studies offering empirical evidence showing a link between school boards and student performance. Findings include a connection between student test scores and politically motivated school board turnover particularly in smaller districts. Conclusions include the notion that board leadership and stability matter to the schools they govern and the communities they serve, lending support to governance theories grounded on the concept of liberty such as the Dissatisfaction Theory.