Author: Stacey MartenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 113
Book Description
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore school board members' perceptions of conflict, the practices board members use to promote collaboration and trust in dealing with conflict, and then address how conflict impacts their decision making to enhance student achievement. Some of the findings from this research revealed that board members were able to mediate the negative effects of conflict on their boards by developing an agreed upon agenda to address and process conflict issues, by thoroughly deliberating topics to address task conflict, and by developing relationships to build trust and prevent relationship conflict. Also, most of the districts in this study shared the same conditions that correlated to districts with high-achieving students as identified by the Lighthouse Inquiry (Delagardelle, 2008). The one area that offered the greatest opportunity for improvement was for boards to have all their board decisions focused on student achievement. To that end, boards would need to define what student achievement is for their district, how they would measure and monitor it, and how they would stay focused on their central mission without getting sidetracked. There is no single solution to improve collaboration and trust. Instead, boards need to utilize a series of actions to enhance board dynamics that include opportunities for board members to interact, to find common ground, to hear everyone's viewpoint, to be transparent, to do a self evaluation, to establish an agenda process to enhance meeting structure, and to encourage community member input.
