Five Characteristics of an Effective School Board

Effective boards allocate resources to needs

Not all students walk through the school doors with the same needs. Good school boards recognize this fact and allocate resources such as time, money, and personnel and adjust practices accordingly. Documents of the school district, such as the annual budget, are viewed as tools to reach student-learning priorities, and the district’s spending and practices do not protect sacred cows.

Effective boards watch the return on investment

We are all accountable to somebody. Effective boards are mindful of their own accountability to the communities that entrust their children to public schools; effective boards routinely and regularly measure and report the return on investment of the education dollars they spend. Effective policy makers today make their greatest gains by asking appropriate questions, and productive boards recognize the self-instructive value in making the following query an ongoing refrain: What services are we providing to which students at what cost and resulting in what benefits?

Effective boards use data 

It has been said, “In God we trust. All others bring data.” By definition, informed policy making requires using data. Otherwise, effective boards cannot be assured that all students, regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status, are progressing toward and reaching high standards. The challenges to student learning, and particularly to providing equity among all students in achievement, are complex. Intuition-based assessment of student learning is tricky at best and certainly is an insufficient basis to determine education policy. Further, without data, reports to communities about the education return on investment are hollow and unconvincing. Communities expect measurable results, through data, from their tax dollars.

Effective boards engage the communities they serve

The best school boards look for ways to institutionalize parent and patron involvement in providing policy-making input. Specifically, effective boards have established mechanisms for community involvement in setting the vision for the school district, representing the values of the community, and identifying the district’s short-term and long-term priorities. The Blue Springs, Missouri, school board, for example, named as that state’s Outstanding Board of Education for 2005, strongly emphasized its shared partnership with its community in educating the district’s 13,000 students.

Do all school boards in the United States meet these five characteristics? Obviously not. Can all school boards in the nation improve their performance with some or all of the characteristics? Probably. It is noteworthy to mention that the CTB/McGraw-Hill panel believes school boards can best champion education initiatives when their members are trained to exercise responsibility, possess a vision, demonstrate progressive leadership, and provide accountability. Combined, these attributes result in school board decision making that improves student performance. (Some states such as Missouri require, by law, training for newly elected or appointed school board members.)

Does the school board in your community measure up? If so, your local school district is likely to be headed in the right direction. If not, you might consider doing something about it—perhaps even serving on it.

This article was written by Dr. Carter Ward and Arthur Griffin Jr. Dr. Ward is executive director of the Missouri School Boards Association and a member of the CTB/McGraw-Hill Education Leadership Panel. Mr. Griffin is vice president for national markets for McGraw-Hill Education and served on the school board of North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for eighteen years.

This article is reprinted with permission from the George Lucas Educational Foundation (www.glef.org). ©2005 The George Lucas Educational Foundation.