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REL N

Accountability Lost : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/accountability-lost

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards accountability

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - Cached
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      Tried to identify confounding variables to increase the likelihood that any changes in voting behavior were due to school performance
  • incumbent school board members won a larger share of the total vote in a precinct when test scores in that precinct improved. We estimate that improvement from the 25th to the 75th percentile of test-score change—that is, moving from a loss of 4 percentile points to a gain of 3.8 percentile points between 1999 and 2000—produced on average an increase of 3 percentage points in an incumbent’s vote share. If precinct test scores dropped from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, the associated 3-percentage-point decrease in an incumbent’s vote share could substantially erode an incumbent’s margin of victory.
  • percentile scores had increased in the year preceding the election, incumbents won 81 percent of the time in competitive elections; in districts where scores had declined, incumbents won only 69 percent of the time.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • significant relationship with precinct test scores and the absence of a relationship with district scores suggests that voters were more concerned with school performance within their immediate neighborhood than across the district.
  • all indications of a relationship between school performance and an incumbent school board member’s vote share vanished after the passage of NCLB in 2002.
  • None of these approaches yielded clear evidence of a link between school performance and voter behavior in school board elections.
  • the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicated that school board members were not being judged on improvement or weakening in school test scores.
  • School performance as measured by test scores may have helped determine which candidates sought reelection and which faced a challenger.
  • assess the relationship between test-score trends and incumbents’ decisions to run for reelection, and then to estimate the effect of test-score trends on the probability that an incumbent who runs faces an opponent.
  • incumbents may bow out in anticipation of being held accountable for poor test-score performance by schools in their district.
  • drop from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, our results lead us to expect that incumbents will be 13 percentage points less likely to run for reelection. In fact, 76 percent of incumbents sought reelection in districts with improving test scores; in districts with falling scores, only 66 percent did.
  • we failed to find any indication that incumbents in 2002 and 2004 based their decisions about running for reelection on student learning trends.
  • In these years, only 30 and 34 percent of articles, respectively, touched on test scores. The decline in media attention leads us to suspect that concerns about student learning trends probably did not stand at the forefront of voters’ or candidates’ thinking in the 2002 and 2004 elections.
  • “The PACT needs to be seen for what it is: a vehicle for politicians to say that they are tough on education (and educators). This may make for good politics, but it makes for bad educational policy.”
  • Reacting to the rising criticisms directed toward PACT, voters may have grown disenchanted with the state’s accountability system and removed test-score performance from among the criteria on which they evaluated school board candidates.
  • if most schools appeared to be average or better, parents may not have been prompted to hold incumbents accountable for poor school performance. Incumbents and potential challengers may also have become less responsive to scores when the testing regimen began to give nearly every school a passing mark.
  • School board elections give the public the leverage to improve their schools. If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement.
  • analyzed test-score data and election results from 499 races over three election cycles in South Carolina to study whether voters punish and reward incumbent school board members on the basis of changes in student learning, as measured by standardized tests, in district schools
  • According to a 2002 national survey, student achievement ranks second only to financial concerns as school board members’ highest priority.
  • the basic purpose of all school board activities is to facilitate the day-to-day functioning of schools.
  • Neither the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) nor the states impose direct sanctions on members of school boards that oversee large numbers of underperforming schools.
  • impact of school performance on incumbents’ decisions to seek reelection and potential challengers’ decisions to join the race.
  • All but 4 of the state’s 46 counties hold nonpartisan school board elections. Approximately 80 percent of school board members receive some compensation, either a salary, per diem payments, or reimbursement for their expenses. Over 90 percent of South Carolina’s 85 school boards have between 5 and 9 members, while the largest board has 11. And, as is common practice in other states, nearly 9 out of 10 South Carolina school districts hold board elections during the general election in November.
  • the most important difference between South Carolina and most other states when it comes to local school politics is the role played by the state’s teachers unions, which are among the weakest in the country.
  • South Carolina school boards are unlikely to be beholden to the unions, which should make the boards more responsive to the broader public.
  • examine whether voters are more concerned with student performance districtwide or in their local neighborhood, we computed two measures of average school performance to include in our analysis.
  • separate the effect of school performance from the effects of other factors that could reasonably influence an incumbent school board member’s vote share
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    Details about research on the impact school performance has on how people vote for school board members. The authors conclude "If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement."
REL N

A Board's Eye View : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/aboardseyeview

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards reform

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • “Code of Conduct for School Board Members.” This was intended, wrote the superintendent, in recommending the code, “to set standards for how the Board interacts with itself.” Sounded like sex to me. But the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them. The superintendent was definitely attempting to tip the balance in favor of the pros. “We will not attempt to exercise individual authority over the district’s operations, staff, or personnel decisions,” read one of the rules he was proposing for us. Another: “We will not express individual judgments about the performance of the superintendent or staff. . . . We recognize the value of the chain of command. When approached by staff, constituents or the public, we will channel all inquiries to the administrator.” I e-mailed the superintendent, “Is this a joke?” He called and laughed lamely.
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      "... the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them."
  • “We should let people know we are looking for quality, of course, but not to the point of advertising outside official channels.”
  • the board never reviewed other major expenditures, such as the installation of a new computer system.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • I asked the superintendent how a new asphalt parking lot was installed at the Greenport School without board approval–or even a bid or a notice or a need. He informed me that a bid wasn’t necessary for a job worth less than $10,000.
  • no clarification of what any of this meant–or cost. Don’t ask. “Mandated” was the knowing word from veteran board members.
  • almost 16 percent of the children in the school district were disabled, almost double the national average.
  • more than 350, were either “emotionally disturbed,” “learning disabled,” or “speech impaired.” These were the kind of catchall categories that allowed a district to dispose of many problem children–in Hudson those children were mostly black–with expensive baby-sitting.
  • over the next several months as I learned that the district had been running a deficit for several years. In fact, the state comptroller’s office, which oversees the fiscal integrity of all state and local government agencies, had conducted its own audit and found the same thing: “overexpenditure of budgetary appropriations and the overestimation of revenues.” Money was being moved around, from one fund to another, which was also against the rules, the comptroller noted. And when auditors had asked for records, they couldn’t be found.
  • the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost.
  • The teacher union president, normally a regular presence at school board meetings, stopped coming so that he wouldn’t have to answer my questions about what was being done to improve things that his teachers controlled. (He had already stopped responding to my phone calls and letters.)
  • the debate was as much cultural–and racial–as educational,
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      The author was frustrated that the board refused to discuss the academic mediocrity in the schools and then he realized that "the debate was as much cultural-and racial-as educational,...."
  • “Mandates” and laws sprouted acres of explanatory weeds–most of them unnecessary. No one ever read the original “mandate.”
  • no one seemed to know why the “Parent/Family/Community Involvement Policy” was necessary, but it was assumed that it was required by some Oz-like authority, passed through the policy-writing machinery at some school board association office, and sent to us for our “approval.”
  • No one else on the board expressed any hint of having read it. And I was beginning to discern a pattern: the more written, the less understood.
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    A concerned parent joined the local school board in hopes of improving the academics. After 6 frustrating months he resigned from the board believing that "the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost."
REL N

School Boards Circa 2010--Governance in the Accountability Era - 0 views

www.aei.org/103116

ADMS707 Niemeyer Governance Empirical Research

shared by REL N on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • the National School Boards Association, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Iowa School Boards Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation have joined together to support new research on school boards and their members.
    • REL N
      REL N on 15 Feb 11
       
      Balance of politics across organizations
  • little empirical research on national board practices has been conducted since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.
  • survey sample was drawn from the National School Boards Association's database of school boards and superintendents from 7,100 districts throughout the United States. The sample was stratified,
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • At least one response was received from 80.1 percent of the districts surveyed.
  • When asked what they consider the most important objectives for schooling, the most popular board member responses are to "prepare students for a satisfying and productive life" and to "help students fulfill their potential."
  • nearly two-thirds also see an urgent need to dramatically boost achievement.
  • Board members think a number of much-discussed reforms hold little or no promise, with 40 percent saying they attach little or no importance to recruiting nontraditional teachers. More than 50 percent feel that way about increasing within-district school choice, more than 60 percent about a year-round school calendar, and more than 80 percent about the creation of new charter schools
  • REL N on 15 Feb 11
     
    Posted 03-Feb-2011: Empirical research on school boards
Jonathan Becker

New NSBA report finds school boards focusing on achievement, accountability «... - 6 views

schoolboardnews.nsba.org/...-on-achievement-accountability

school boards nsba report research adms707

shared by Jonathan Becker on 03 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Jonathan Becker on 03 Feb 11
     
    An important read for the week on the role of school boards.
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Victoria Schnettler on 03 Feb 11
     
    Really??? Some good news today? Thanks.
  • Jonathan Becker on 03 Feb 11
     
    Only if you think achievement and accountability are worth focusing on... ;-)
  • REL N on 04 Feb 11
     
    Yipppeeee! 90% of school board members are "concerned about an overly narrow focus on achievement." There may be a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.
  • mirabilecp on 05 Feb 11
     
    I don't find anything here groundbreaking as such...what was I supposed to be surprised by again?
  • Tara McDaniel on 05 Feb 11
     
    We shall see if their actions speak to their words
  • Phil Riddle on 05 Feb 11
     
    It is interesting that school board members are only "lukewarm" about certain "structural" changes such as school choice, charter schools, and year-round schooling.
Victoria Schnettler

First, Kill All the School Boards - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...3

ADMS707 education reform School boards federalization

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11
     
    An interesting, an extreme, point of view in the historical creation of school boards and the current desire to federalize programs for greater consistency in standards alleviating the need for school boards altogether.
  • stephlennon on 20 Feb 11
     
    Extreme in every sense of the word, but especially after thinking about this issue over the week, I am not sure I disagree!
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 21 Feb 11
     
    Did you read the article on how the Germans form policy? Check out Professionalism & Receptivity to change?
mirabilecp

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement - August 2009 Newsletter - 0 views

www.centerforcsri.org/index.php

ADMS707 School Boards

shared by mirabilecp on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • mirabilecp on 18 Feb 11
     
    I found this easy read to provide good background on the history of school boards. It features two of Virginia's school boards (Hopewell and Fairfax).
Victoria Schnettler

The Guidelines for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct and Abuse in Virginia Public Sch... - 1 views

www.doe.virginia.gov/...item_h.pdf

adms707 education reform Va board of misconduct

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 25 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 25 Mar 11
     
    These new guidelines from the Virginia Board of Education are a perfect example of passing the buck....when the board initially created these guidelines in January, they were very explicit and strict and there was a lot of backlash to it.(http://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/meetings/2011/01_jan/agenda_items/item_j.pdf) Now if you read the March guidelines, you can clearly see that the board is now asking local boards to define and create policies regarding social networking interactions between students and staff. Seems similar to feds asking states to define mandates, doesn't it?
  • Tara McDaniel on 26 Mar 11
     
    Scary...
Jonathan Becker

Hampton School Board vs. Patrick Russo trial scheduled for March - dailypress.com - 3 views

www.dailypress.com/...-0214-20110214,0,2382190.story

school board hampton ADMS707

shared by Jonathan Becker on 14 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Jonathan Becker on 14 Feb 11
     
    The Hampton School Board's lawsuit against former superintendent Patrick Russo is back on the court docket. A two-day jury trial has been scheduled for March 21-22 in Hampton Circuit Court. The board is suing Russo for the $102,220 it paid into a retirement account before he resigned in February 2009 to leave for nearby Henrico County Public Schools, where he is still at the helm.
  • Phil Riddle on 14 Feb 11
     
    Dr. Becker, if you had to guess, what do you think will be the result?
  • Jonathan Becker on 15 Feb 11
     
    Hmmm...Philip. I wish I had some insight here. This is a contract issue and the worst grade I got in law school was in Contracts class :-)
REL N

Advancing Student Achievement Through Labor-Management Collaboration | U.S. Department ... - 0 views

www.ed.gov/...labor-management-collaboration

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • teachers, we should look at multiple measures of effectiveness, including student achievement. I encourage you to survey your colleagues and develop a system that works for you.
  • school boards should be evaluated as well
  • we need a system where school boards also get the meaningful feedback they need from their partners, not just voters
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    One of the suggestion that Duncan made in his remarks is that school boards should be evaluated by means other than just elections.
Victoria Schnettler

Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics - 0 views

books.google.com/books

ADMS707 education School boards unions

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11
     
    Chapter: Teacher Unions and School Board Elections is very interesting when looking at self-interest in the political realm
stephlennon

Virginia school board votes to put Ten Commandments back in county schools - 1 views

www.secularnewsdaily.com/...ndments-back-in-county-schools

ADMS707 boards

shared by stephlennon on 20 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • stephlennon on 20 Feb 11
     
    The source must be considered (Secular News Daily) - but whoa! Ten Commandments posted?!?! I am shocked to see the 5-0 ruling on this one...I wonder if Giles County has elected or appointed board members.
  • Phil Riddle on 20 Feb 11
     
    If I had to guess, this policy will have an extremely short shelf life.
  • stephlennon on 21 Feb 11
     
    Well, yeah. :-)
Angela Winston

Strike Phobia : School Boards Need to Drive A Harder Bargain - 0 views

educationnext.org/strikephobia

collective bargaining school boards local Winston ADMS707

shared by Angela Winston on 24 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Angela Winston on 24 Feb 11
     
    Influence of collective bargaining on school boards
REL N

Few back Quinn's consolidation push | school, local, consolidation - Jacksonville Illin... - 0 views

www.myjournalcourier.com/...32478-local-consolidation.html

NIemeyer ADMS707 Governance School Board Restructuring

shared by REL N on 07 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Ganson said each of the five local elementary districts have different costs, different debt loads and different needs. There would have to be sweeping agreements before consolidation could ever move forward
    • REL N
      REL N on 07 Apr 11
       
      Different needs, different debt loads... could this be "code" for something else?! This sounds a little like "separate but equal"--although it may not be predicated solely on race--or the apartheid that Kozol describes in Shame of the Nation.
  • Koch said the Illinois State Board of Education has always had the power to step in and take over failing schools. He said that power also includes the ability to dissolve a local school district. Koch said the state board will continue to "focus on incentives" to consolidation.
  • "If (school consolidation) makes sense in a community and a community is supportive of it, it needs to be a community decision. I don't think as a General Assembly we should be making and mandating school consolidation," Roth said.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "There are a lot of local issues, nuances really, that would have to be worked out," Ganson said, "if the local districts were to come together."
  • Quinn first proposed the idea of required consolidation during his budget speech in February. Quinn said Illinois has too many school districts, and too many highly paid superintendents.
  • REL N on 07 Apr 11
     
    So the school boards and their constituents know that consolidation would reduce costs and the people don't want to pay higher taxes... yet there is reluctance to consolidate small districts (those with approx 500 students) because of unique needs (hmmm is this "code" for something?) and because the constituencies don't like the idea of a state mandate. So, let's see... whose interests are they protecting?
REL N

Quantitative Analysis in, Educational Administrator Preparation Programs - 1 views

www.edweek.org/...20schoolboards.h30.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Governance

shared by REL N on 08 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 08 Feb 11
     
    School Board members are still focused on student achievement over charter schools, performance pay etc. Hess article attached.
  • REL N on 08 Feb 11
     
    School Board members are still focused on student achievement over charter schools, performance pay etc. Hess article attached.
Roger Mancastroppa

Professionalism and Receptivity to Change. - 1 views

www.eric.ed.gov/ED075900.pdf

ADMS707 education School states boards

shared by Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11
     
    Deals with the struggle of public service professionals that resist changing the occupational norms that would decrease their power even though it would benefit their clients. To examine the relationship between professionalism and change, data were collected from elementary school principals, local school board members, and lay members of community health planning. Principals were slightly less inclined than school board members to accept change. The least professional of the three groups, community health members, were the most negative about change. The mixed findings may result partially from the spurious relationship between professionalism and change. Two additional variables were introduced to test this hypothesis: amount of "turbulence" or dissatisfaction among clients and diversity of viewpoints within groups. Controlling for the former variable yielded little difference; however, there was a strong positive relationship between diversity of viewpoints and change. Consequently, group consensus is seen as a major variable in predicting acceptance of change.
Roger Mancastroppa

Raising the Achievement of English Language Learners in the Buffalo Public Schools - 0 views

www.eric.ed.gov/ED511361.pdf

adms707 education reform school states boards superintendent

shared by Roger Mancastroppa on 06 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 06 Mar 11
     
    The school board and superintendent set up the groundwork for instructional reforms. They turned to the Council of the Great City Schools to look at how well the district's instructional program was meeting the academic needs of these English-language learners and newcomers. The study shows how a program considered excellent that performs very well, can still miss students with limited English speaking skills. The report shows how the school district missed the fact that many of these folks even existed, let alone began building programming to meet their needs. Most important are the strategies that offer the students a chance to join mainstream and improve their achievement. 
Tara McDaniel

The anacronism of local school boards - 1 views

www.greeleygazette.com/press

ADMS707 reform school boards

shared by Tara McDaniel on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Tara McDaniel on 18 Feb 11
     
    "The local school board, especially the elected kind, is an anachronism and an outrage. We can no longer pretend it's working well or hide behind the mantra of 'local control of education.' We need to steel ourselves to put this dysfunctional arrangement out of its misery and move on to something that will work for children."
mirabilecp

Webinar to Help Districts Incorporate Social Networking - 2 views

event.on24.com/...EventLobbyServlet

ADMS707 school boards social networking

shared by mirabilecp on 22 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • mirabilecp on 22 Feb 11
     
    As a follow up to Steph et al's blog about school board communication with parents....here is a webinar next wee (3/2 at 2 pm) .
Victoria Schnettler

State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act - 0 views

leg1.state.va.us/...legp504.exe

ADMS707 Act State Local School Boards

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 08 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 08 Feb 11
     
    Outlines specific Act that outlines the walls of state and local power...2.2-3119 outlines school boards specifically.
Roger Mancastroppa

School Administration in the Federal Republic of Germany and Its Implications for the U... - 0 views

www.eric.ed.gov/ED380881.pdf

ADMS707 education states boards

shared by Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11
     
    Germans do not use lay governance - This paper presents findings of a study that explored the governance and administration of elementary and secondary schools in Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. The sample included 12 Bavarian schools--3 each of the following 4 types of schools--elementary (Grundschulen) and secondary (Gymnasien, Realschulen, and Hauptschulen). Data were gathered from interviews with school principals or headmasters and some administrative staff, observation, and document analysis. Findings showed that the selection process for teachers in Germany is much more rigorous than in the United States. Principals are experienced classroom teachers with proven ability who continue to teach. In addition, the entire district apparatus is missing; there are no superintendents, lay boards of education, and so forth. Bavarian schools appear to function extremely well within a framework of fairly tight external control, while enjoying strong professionalism among educators and freedom from the micromanagement that all too often plagues their American counterparts. Findings underscore the need for fundamental and systemic reform in the United States; high student achievement must be preceded by advances in teacher professionalism.
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