Book Review:
'The Essential School
Board Book'
Q. I'm
thinking of running for school board. How hard a job is it? With all the
standardization in education, can a local school board still make a difference
for kids? I want to help, but I don't want to waste my time; my family and my
job have to come first.
A school
board post can be as stressful and time-consuming as you make it. But of
course, you'd rather have it be inspiring, challenging, fulfilling and
manageable. And it can be all that, and more, if you go into the post
well-prepared, and conduct yourself well during your service.
Be sure
to talk to current and former school-board members in your area,
confidentially, to see what they think. Find out how many OTHER meetings and
phone calls are typical each month, on top of the regularly-scheduled meeting.
Find out how often parents or others create hassles - is the atmosphere tense
and suspicious? Are you up for that? Also find out if the apathy is gaping in
your district and what efforts are being made to change that. An apathetic
public may signal a district-wide attitude of smugness and self-righteousness,
low morale among the staff, and a mediocre or poor educational product. Are you
up to change that? Find out if the superintendent struggles for power or has
personality conflicts with superiors and subordinates; remember that as a
school-board member representing the public, you are the superintendent's
"boss," but many of them don't like that reality and can be difficult and pull
dirty tricks on you ("Didn't you get the memo?").
You might
want to spend an hour or two in the district office, paging through the
gigantic policy manuals that are characteristic of public-school districts. See
if that material is something you would like to engage yourself with on a
regular basis.
You might
also ask to see the minutes of the last year or two of school-board meetings.
It might be a red flag of poor quality if every single vote is unanimous -
groupthink and gridlock. But on the other hand, you don't want to see a whole
bunch of sharply-divided votes, either: that signals discord and difficulty.
For
background information on how school-board decisions really can affect student
achievement for better or for worse, read "The Essential School Board Book: Better
Governance in the Age of Accountability" by Nancy Walser.
She's a
former school board member in Cambridge, Mass., who is assistant editor of the Harvard Education Letter. She studied
the actions of 16 school boards in different kinds of districts in urban,
suburban and rural settings in an attempt to link what policies and practices
led to the best gains in student achievement.
The book
has been lauded for sharing real-world solutions, although observers agree that
there is still scant scientific evidence that puts a clear cause and effect
relationship between school-board policies and excellence in student outcomes.
The book
is built around these five themes for a school board member to consider in
decision-making:
§
Building
a foundation
§
Staying
focused on achievement
§
Avoiding
pitfalls
§
When
things go right
§
Looking
ahead
Homework: You
can obtain the book from this website or any number of other sources:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934742325/ref=pd_1ctyhuc__top_sim_03_01