This month’s issue of the American School Board Journal includes my article on board PD. In the article I discuss 6 shortcomings that limit the board’s ability to renew and enhance its governing performance and 5 ways that we can recalibrate our understanding of and approach to board professional development. Here’s a link to the article: What’s Wrong with Board Professional Development? (nsba.org)
Tag: #boardsmanship
6 Focus Areas for the School Board
School boards should review 6 areas to help focus their efforts: the state, the community, the students, the district, the superintendent, and (most important) the board itself.
4 Types of Boards
What types of boards are there? And how does board governance compare with teaching as a profession? Understanding the Danielson Framework for Teaching may offer a starting point for answering these questions. Boards might be categorized into one of four different types, the first three of which are readily distinguished by their current levels of performance in the practice of governance. These board types are: 1. Dysfunctional – those that do actual harm to the board and the organization governed Read More …
Gaining New Members? Renew Your Whole Board (Part 2 of 3)
The Board Takes Responsibility for Strategic Voice and Operational Guidance “Whenever the board gets a new member, a new board is formed.” Part 1 of this post introduced the above (a traditional saying about boards) as rationale for making the new members’ first day on the job one of intentional induction, not only for the new member but for the “new board” that is being formed. What if the board, seriously accepting responsibility for its own performance, took the opportunity Read More …
Gaining New Members? Renew Your Whole Board (Part 1 of 3)
The Board Takes Responsibility for Board Readiness Most boards are underperformers when it comes to helping their newest members rapidly become knowledgeable, contributing members of the governing team. Except for the formal swearing-in that is mandated by law, boards leave professional development up to the individual, and for most new board members, that means the slow and haphazard nature of on-the-job experience. This is partly due to board members acknowledging the independent nature of elected (or appointed) office by keeping Read More …