The Keywork Of School Boards Guidebook

Newly revised in 2015, NSBA's Key Work of School Boards framework identifies the core skills that effective boards need to ensure that all students achieve at high levels through excellence in governance.

Newly revised in 2020, NSBA's Key Work of School Boards framework identifies the core skills that effective boards need to ensure that all students achieve at high levels through excellence in governance.

In today's school environment educational leaders are mandated to use academic standards to measure the progress of their school's teachers and students. Despite the wealth of material that addresses the topic of academic standards there is little written for those who must lead the effort to put in place an effective standards system. The Leader's Guide to Standards is a landmark book-- written by Douglas Reeves, an expert in academic standards, performance assessment, and accountability-- that shows school principals, assistant principals, teachers, and district-level administrators how to build a comprehensive accountability system for standards-based reform that focuses on leadership skills. Reeves offers practical recommendations for assessing and nurturing teacher performance, setting up balanced assessment and accountability policies, and making the case for standards to the public. In addition, the book addresses the vital role that policymakers from the local school board to state and national leaders play in the successful implementation of educational standards.

A learning tool for the novice and a valuable refresher course for the veteran school board member. An introduction to the policies, procedures, and essential issues involved in the lay governance of the U.S. public schools.

The go-to resource for school board members’ greatest challenges! This invaluable guide addresses the top challenges experienced by nearly every school board, and shows how professional learning can support positive change throughout a school system. Effective for individual study or group learning, this resource helps board members to: Learn from case studies focused on 12 critical board-level decisions, including hiring a new superintendent, resource allocation, compensation planning, and more Know when, where, and how to use professional learning to improve individual and districtwide performance Benefit from best practices and tools developed to support effective decisions and successful implementation of major initiatives

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.

This is a thought-provoking book on the black-white academic achievement gap in Chicago’s predominantly black communities of color and what highly effective school boards can do to change it. In this book, the reader will be powerfully enlightened by a civil and human rights debate that calls for effective leadership in our schools, beginning with effective school boards. The primary agenda of effective school boards is raising student achievement performance levels and engaging the school district community to attain that goal. These instructive analyses of effective school board leadership builds on the research and wisdom of great leaders. Simultaneously, it develops a breath of fresh air for school reformers who seek to implement a new model and escape the insanity and pathology inherent in school board dysfunctions and violations of our civil and human rights which prevents progress in Chicago’s south suburban communities of color. In both highs and lows of awesome moments, as educational reform leaders and school board members, we are in a strategic leadership position to help school boards carry out their essential responsibilities for creating equity and excellence in public education. In doing so, highly effective school leaders can team with our school board leaders to lead our school district communities in preparing all students to succeed in a rapidly changing global society. School board members doing the same things over and over again and then expecting different results in academic outcomes is the definition for insanity. Education is freedom. In an era of mass educational apartheid with its consequent mass incarceration of blacks that has surpassed the enforced chattel bondage of slavery’s peak numbers in 1860, this book addresses a subject that is critically essential, timely, and in need of immediate attention for the security, success, and ultimate survival of black America. As the problems of the academic under-achievement gap is addressed in this book, it is also essential that school boards, educators, and community and national leaders accept reality, to view the problem in its true perspective, to contemplate it as it is, in providing essential solutions toward removing limiting and limited school boards’ dysfunctions, obstructions, and other barriers to academic achievement in effective school board leadership. Supporting educational excellence will thereby produce more African American scholars in mathematics, science, and in many other disciplines. This book will provide information and focus on some key action areas that successful school boards in America and around the world have focused their attention on: Vision, Standards, Assessment, Resource Alignment, Climate, Collaboration, and Continuous Academic Improvement.