Another look at Questions #7-11 of “49 Questions to Ask Your School Board”

Rick Maloney

Strategic approach as a prerequisite for board readiness

To be ready to exercise governance responsibilities on behalf of its community a board must take a strategic approach.

Governance readiness depends on more than having the right governance mindset. Not only must a board assure that its thinking is strategic, it must also assure that its acting is strategic – developing routines that set the stage for effective work. To be fully ready the board must have the right governance approach to that work. Like a professional athlete that develops patterns and plays, then drills them until they are nearly automatic in execution, a board must develop a pattern to its board work, then practice, and practice, to achieve peak governance performance.

Boards that take a strategic approach to their role begin as a first priority by avoiding the many practices and behaviors that have been shown in research to have a detrimental effect on the intended goal of positive student outcomes. Many ineffective practices fall under the category of micromanagement, whereby the board abandons its strategic role and tries to play an operational or management role.

Board member micromanagement has a negative effect on student achievement.1

– S.A. Peterson

Strategic-oriented boards elevate their practice from trying to do the day-to-day operational work of management and instead focus their efforts on strategically performing their governance role. Elevating the board’s practice is described by McAdams:

Boards are powerful. They select; evaluate; and, if they choose, terminate superintendents. They set goals, allocate resources, create policy frameworks, and oversee management and are the bridge between districts and the publics they serve.2

– Don McAdams

The above succinctly describes the school board’s more strategic role and broadly outlines a strategic approach to carrying out that role. The effective board has a clear sense of its purpose. It distinguishes the strategic work of the board from the operational work of superintendent and staff, then persists in performing at a strategic level.

Elements of a strategic approach include adopting a systems perspective, following a systematic process, taking a strategic approach to policy, and taking a strategic approach to meetings.

‘Seeing’ with a systems perspective is an approach that enables the board to consider the whole system when making decisions, aware that changes affecting one part of the system inevitably lead to effects, many of which are unexpected, elsewhere in the system.

Governing with a systems perspective means understanding not only that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but that each of the parts is essential…effective governance flows from understanding and paying attention to all of these elements.3

– Katherine Gemberling et al, The Key Work of School Boards (2009)

Before taking actions that might benefit one subsystem, boards with a systems perspective will seek superintendent input on potential unintended and negative consequences elsewhere in the system.

The superintendent needs to make it clear that decisions made in one area have both anticipated and unanticipated impact on other parts of the district…Trustees with a governance mindset understand that the board must address system-wide issues and not be focused on single programs and agendas except as part of any integrated educational program.4

Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan

‘Acting’ in a systematic process, a school board sets a pattern that consists of predictable patterns in what might be called the board’s “operating system.” While not automatic, a board that follows such a pattern has set the stage for good governance. You cannot just “set it and forget it” – the board must do the work it has established as board work. But having a system, with a continuous cycle that can be improved with practice, a board can more readily impact student outcomes over time.

  1. Connect with the community to learn what the community’s vision and values are for student learning.
  2. Set strategic policies that promote the community’s expectations in terms of vision and values.
  3. Monitor performance, collecting relevant data that reflect district progress and performance.
  4. Compare relevant data with expectations as expressed in those strategic policies.
  5. Judge whether performance reflects reasonable progress toward that vision and reasonable alignment with those values.
  6. Review existing policy guidance to determine whether policy needs adjustment for the future.
  7. Revise policy as needed based on that review.
  8. Revisit 1-7 above, repeating the cycle to assure continuous improvement in both district and board performance.

The following questions (with links to relevant blog entries) relate to the board’s approach:

Four elements of strategic approach are systems perspective, systematic process, strategic policy, and strategic meetings;

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