An Exploration of School Board Decisions

An Exploration of School Board Decisions PDF Author: Irwin Twining Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : School boards
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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An Exploration of School Board Decisions

An Exploration of School Board Decisions PDF Author: Irwin Twining Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : School boards
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description


An Exploration of Motivations for School Board Membership, Conceptions of Power, and Their Effects on Decision Making

An Exploration of Motivations for School Board Membership, Conceptions of Power, and Their Effects on Decision Making PDF Author: Meredith Lynn Mountford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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A School District's Decision-making Process Regarding Implementation of School Choice

A School District's Decision-making Process Regarding Implementation of School Choice PDF Author: Laura D. Carlin-Gonzalez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
As school districts are challenged with facing the many demands of meeting the needs of all students, school choice is presented as one way to meet those needs. School choice is anchored in the economic theory of competition in that if parents and students are offered options for choice, then they will choose the best educational opportunities presented. In addition, if competition is injected into the educational system, all schools will improve as a result. Benefits and challenges have been identified regarding school choice. Despite the challenges, many traditional public-school superintendents and school leaders consider school choice implementation as a method of school reform. While there has been research regarding school choice benefits and challenges, further exploration was warranted regarding the decision-making process used to consider whether or not to implement school choice. The purpose of this study was to determine the decision-making process employed to decide whether or not to implement schools of choice within a single school district. It also focused on what factors contributed to the exploration of school choice implementation, and how the specific process employed, by the school superintendent, was influenced by the emerging factors considered for choice implementation. Thus, the researcher explored the actions taken by the superintendent and district leaders as they considered school choice implementation. The researcher employed a constructionism epistemology with a qualitative single case study approach. Data was collected, coded, and analyzed using a deductive process. The researcher used multiple data sources in order to triangulate the data. Findings suggested that factors that influenced the superintendent and school district leaders to explore school choice implementation were competition with neighboring schools, student achievement and student interests, and building on early successes. The findings further revealed the decision-making process employed by the district that included five phases: setting a vision, gathering data, soliciting community input, researching programs based on data, and creating tightly aligned implementation plans. The findings of the study discovered that the emerging factors influenced the decision-making process to be student-centered, highly data-driven and research based, and collaborative

Preserving the Public in Public Schools

Preserving the Public in Public Schools PDF Author: Phil Boyle
Publisher: R&L Education
ISBN: 1610485440
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
What's public about public schools? Why do we invest in educating the next generation of Americans? What is it that drives our common purpose in educating children and at the same time divides us so passionately about how to educate them? Public schools have little to do with children. Schools are political and ideological institutions in which each generation battles among itself for supremacy in determining the purposes, goals and direction of public education. From battles over school lunch to school dress to school prayer, each generation reinterprets and recapitulates the political and ideological arguments that date back to the founding of our nation. More than two centuries after the American Revolution, public schools serve as political battlefields for debates about religious freedom and whether students should be allowed to wear U.S. flag teeshirts. We invite you to join us in an exploration of the purposes of public schools, the competing visions of public education, and the values of the public good that comprise the public in public schools.

Five Habits of High-impact School Boards

Five Habits of High-impact School Boards PDF Author: Douglas C. Eadie
Publisher: R&L Education
ISBN: 9781578861767
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Written from the unique perspective of school board members who lead and serve districts of all sizes, this book provides succinct, straightforward information that school board members and superintendents can put to immediate use. Eadie explores five key behavioral traits of high-impact school boards: - Concentration on governing above all other board work - Development of the board's capacity to govern - Active participation in leading district strategic change - Meticulous attention to keeping the board-superintendent partnership healthy - Active participation in reaching out a wider community Five Habits of High-Impact School Boards provides school board members, superintendents, senior administrators, foundation executives, and graduate students in schools of education, with practical, thoroughly tested guidance for successful governing work and a board-superintendent partnership that is close, productive, and enduring.

Besieged

Besieged PDF Author: William G. Howell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815797699
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
School boards are fighting for their survival. Almost everything that they do is subject to regulations handed down from city councils, state boards of education, legislatures, and courts. As recent mayoral and state takeovers in such cities as Baltimore, Chicago, and New York make abundantly clear, school boards that do not fulfill the expectations of other political players may be stripped of what few independent powers they still retain. Teachers unions exert growing influence over board decision-making processes. And with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government has aggressively inserted itself into matters of local education governance. B esieged is the first full-length volume in many years to systematically examine the politics that surround school boards. A group of highly renowned scholars, relying on both careful case studies and quantitative analyses, examine how school boards fare when they interact with their political superiors, teachers unions, and the public. For the most part, the picture that emerges is sobering: while school boards perform certain administrative functions quite well, the political pressures they face undermine their capacity to institute the wide-ranging school reforms that many voters and local leaders are currently demanding.

Some Relationships in the Composition of School Board Decisions

Some Relationships in the Composition of School Board Decisions PDF Author: Edward William Keen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : School boards
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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The Essential School Board Book

The Essential School Board Book PDF Author: Nancy Walser
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 161250048X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
2009 Notable Education Book, American School Board Journal The Essential School Board Book highlights effective practices that are common to high-functioning boards around the country—boards that are working successfully with their superintendents and communities to improve teaching and learning. Amid today’s heightened attention on student achievement, school boards find their responsibilities intensified and transformed. In this age of accountability, all school boards need to consider how best to maintain a focus on student achievement and promote it through district and school policies. In a highly readable and accessible fashion, the book summarizes research linking school board practices to student achievement. It features stories of sixteen diverse boards around the country—elected and appointed; rural, urban, and suburban—and the policies and procedures they have employed to enhance student achievement. Also included is a resource section for those investigating successful school board policies and practices in more depth.

School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability

School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability PDF Author: Bruce G. Barnett
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1623963842
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States’ No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia’s Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators “accountable for student learning and accountable to the public” (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as “buffers” by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

An Analysis of School Board Policy Decisions in Selected Arizona Public School Districts as They Relate to Community Pressure

An Analysis of School Board Policy Decisions in Selected Arizona Public School Districts as They Relate to Community Pressure PDF Author: Jack Wesley Dumond
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public schools
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description