Another look at Questions #2-6 of “49 Questions to Ask Your School Board”

Rick Maloney

Governance mindset as a prerequisite for board readiness

A governance mindset is one necessary component of board readiness, the other being a governance approach.

An effective governance mindset has several features, including two elements that make up a servant-leader mindset, and two elements that make up a growth mindset.

Davis and Fullan1 describe a governance mindset as something that enables the individual board members to transcend their boardsmanship role to contribute to the governance role of the whole board:

The development of a governance mindset in our view is the most important characteristic of effective trustees…Having a governance mindset is understanding the role and responsibilities of the governing board and how individual trustee leadership can enhance the positive, value-added impact of the governance process.

– Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan

Beyond Campbell and Fullan’s definition above, which focuses on the individual board member’s ability to transcend boardsmanship, a governance mindset requires that the whole board adopt (as a unified entity) an orientation consisting of two elements that characterize what Greenleaf2 refers to as the servant-leader (in order to lead, one has to first be committed to serve. Then, one has to be willing to lead):

The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.

– Robert Greenleaf

Another important part of an effective governance mindset for the whole school board is that the board (like any effective leader) must have two elements of a growth mindset as described by Dweck3, involving both a belief in growth and a willingness to do the work necessary for that growth. Contrasting the growth mindset with what she calls a fixed mindset, she says “The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving.” The debilitating nature of a fixed mindset is illustrated by a student whom Dweck quotes:

I remember often being praised for my intelligence rather than my efforts, and slowly but surely, I developed an aversion to difficult challenges. Most surprisingly, this extended beyond academic and even athletic challenges to emotional challenges. This was my greatest learning disability – this tendency to see performance as a reflection of character and, if I could not accomplish something right away, to avoid that task or treat it with contempt.

– Carol Dweck

Belief in growth is reflected in research into school board effectiveness conducted as part of what has become known as the Iowa Lighthouse Inquiry4. Researchers conducted a comparison between districts that were similar in demographics but showed great disparity in their student achievement results, and attributed those differences to differing beliefs about their students:

In the high-achieving districts, the board/superintendent team and school personnel consistently expressed an “elevating” view of students. Students were viewed as emerging and flexible and the school’s job was seen as releasing each student’s potential. The board/superintendent team and school personnel viewed the school system critically and were constantly seeking opportunities to improve.

– Mary Delagardelle et al

Continuous improvement in board effectiveness requires more than a belief in growth. Board effort in carrying out the board role is essential for a board’s growth. Just as a student who is capable of growth actually achieves it through personal effort, a board must demonstrate a work ethic, not just as individual board members but as a whole board. In Lighthouse II5, the second stage of the Iowa Lighthouse Inquiry, researchers noted:

When local school board/superintendent teams generate a districtwide focus on improved achievement and engage local administrators and teachers in creating or strengthening key conditions that support continuous improvement, it will result in high and equitable student achievement and elevated beliefs across the system.

– Mary Delagardelle et al

Having a governance mindset as described above is a necessary precondition for carrying out the other, more observable governance functions. More specific dispositions (beliefs, values and attitudes that predispose the board to act) are found in the detailed descriptions of those governance functions – what the board must be, what the board must know, what it must do – but the foundation of readiness on which a board pursues those major functions is laid by the board having a governance mindset to begin with.

The following additional questions (with links to corresponding blog articles) deal with the readiness component of mindset;

Four elements of mindset are commitment to serve, willingness to lead, belief in growth, and work ethic:

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