Governing Effectively via a Framework for School Governance
Comedian Henny Youngman had a joke (often repeated) that went like this: The patient says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” [The doctor’s response:] “Then don’t do that!” Sometimes the first advice a board should follow if it wants to improve its performance is to find out what it does that hurts…then stop doing that.
The best boards keep their noses in the business and their fingers out. Jim Brown (The Imperfect Board Member) The Board Role in Supervision As Jim Brown implies, the best boards supervise but do not run the business. The board role in supervision of a school district is to set expectations about what is to be achieved as far as desired outcomes for students are concerned (what the community wants students to know and be able to do) and provide Read More …
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton The Problem Early in my first career (24 years in the US Army) I occasionally heard of a senior officer being removed from command due to misconduct of some sort. Although relatively rare in an organization of hundreds of thousands, these incidents seemed to occur more often in situations where the leader was isolated from the next higher level of command, removed from the “prying eyes” of direct observation and supervision. Leaders Read More …
Boards Matter – Part IV (4th of 4 parts) Only boards, because of the democratic power they derive from the people, because of their close links with the people, and because of their stability, can provide the leadership required to redesign and sustain over decades school districts that provide equity and results for all children. – Don McAdams The board contributes to stability. Because of its institutional nature, it is the board, not the superintendent and not its individual members, Read More …
Boards Matter – Part III 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. Bartusek, L (ed.), Iowa School Board COMPASS: A Guide for Those Who Lead Board beliefs/behaviors correlate with student learning. Research specifically looking at school board effectiveness (the Iowa studies conducted in the late 1990s and subsequent work over the next Read More …
Boards Matter – Part II …we found five district-level leadership “responsibilities” or “initiatives” with a statistically significant (p < .05) correlation with average student achievement. Ensuring collaborative goal setting. Establishing nonnegotiable goals for achievement and instruction. Creating board alignment with and support of district goals. Monitoring achievement and instruction goals. Allocating resources to support the goals for achievement and instruction. Timothy Waters and Robert Marzano, District Leadership That Works The board influences student learning through district-level leadership Can board leadership Read More …
Boards Matter – Part I Board members sometimes wonder: “Am I prepared for this job?” “Can the board contribute anything of importance to the mission?” “Does the work of a board matter?” In the film Mr. Holland’s Opus there is a scene in which the school board, in a budget-cutting move, votes to cut the arts program, eliminating the music teaching job to which Mr Holland (Richard Dreyfus) has dedicated his adult life. The board is portrayed as dimwitted and Read More …
From the Boardroom: Questions Many Boards Never Think to Ask (Part IV) February 18, 2018 Rick Maloney This is the last of a four-part series. In Parts I, II and III of this post, we considered questions rarely (maybe never) asked by Board members regarding orientation and professional development of board members, the full Board, and Superintendent/staff, and questions about some strategic Board-level functions. In this part, we will review a couple of ordinary board functions that at first don’t appear Read More …
In Parts I and II of this post, we considered questions rarely (maybe never) asked by Board members regarding orientation and professional development of board members, the full Board, and its Superintendent/staff. This third part will deal with questions about some strategic Board-level functions: About Planning Strategic Board Functions Strategic planning. Q#1: Does the Board take responsibility for strategic planning? The Board is likely to answer this question in the affirmative, as this is something the Board does pay attention to, Read More …
From the Boardroom: Questions Many #Boards Never Think to Ask (Part II) December 16, 2017 Rick Maloney In Part I of this post, we considered some questions rarely (perhaps never) asked by Board members regarding such topics as the orientation the Board provides to its members, ongoing Board member professional development, and professional development for the Board as a body, focusing on collective behaviors that are not addressed in individual Board member professional development. Some more “never think to ask” Read More …