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This study investigates the political, personal, and policy issues that drive citizens to seek unpaid, elected positions on Pennsylvania's public school boards. This research examines whether school board members are recruited to run for office and considers the role of various recruitment agents such as political parties, interest groups, and non-political community organizations. Trends in political and community engagement among school board members, their potential ambition to seek higher office, and the relationship between elected board members and appointed district superintendents are also examined. The study relies upon a unique dataset gathered through a survey distributed to all of Pennsylvania's nearly 4,500 school board members and a series of interviews with current state legislators who began their political careers by serving on their local school boards. Findings suggest that school board members are enormously engaged in the political and non-political life of their communities. It is also determined that school board members are principally self-starters who do not intend to use their positions as springboards to higher office. These findings are analyzed to help determine the implications for governance at the local level as well as to better comprehend the dynamics of party organizations, interest groups, and other community organizations within Pennsylvania school district politics and elections. / Political Science

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Local school boards and their presidents provide Americans with the grass roots leadership for public education. Both have been ignored by policy makers and authors. The purpose of the study was to solicit school board members', school board presidents', and past presidents' perceptions of the role as well as the real and ideal leadership attributes of their school board presidents. A survey method was utilized to address the questions inherent in the purpose. The population for this study included the members of local public boards of education in the U.S. The sampling frame consisted of local school board members holding membership in the National School Boards Association. A random stratified sample was selected. Descriptive procedures were used to summarize the data. Additionally, the relationships between school board presidents', past presidents', and board members perceptions and selected demographic variables (i.e. geographic region, gender, community type, school system enrollment, age, number of terms served, education attainment, race, method president is chosen) was explored using cross-tabulation procedures. The response rate was about 27%. School board members perceive their school board presidents to be most active in the board room. Ideally, school board members perceive an expanded role for their president that includes services to board members and superintendent relations. School board presidents perceive a greater role for the school board presidents than do school board members that includes the highly visible board room roles as well as board member services and superintendent relations activities. Past school board presidents' views differ widely from those of school board presidents and slightly from board members, and in most cases tend to give a lower rating of the board president. School board members, school board presidents, and past presidents perceive their school board presidents as displaying few of the leadership attributes of traditional leaders. They agree that ideally these leadership attributes are critical or important. Differences concerning the board president's real and ideal role and real and ideal leadership attributes were found among board presidents by gender and school system enrollment; among past presidents by school system enrollment, and method president is chosen; and among school board members by geographic region, gender, age, school system enrollment, and education attainment. Results should assist school superintendents and professional educators, school board presidents, school board members, and the general citizenry as they work to clarify their respective roles. / Ed. D.

"No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) has generated considerable attention within the education world. The purpose of this thesis is to question how local governments, i.e., local Boards of Education, have reacted to the current involvement and demands of the federal government. NCLB has only started to have an impact on local schools in the last few years as they have begun to fall into various categories of being "in need of improvement" based on failing to meet established goals. School boards are put in a position to rethink their programs and reevaluate their own efforts as they attempt to insure students are meeting the benchmarks established by the federal and state governments and that Highly Qualified Teachers are in every child's classroom. This thesis looks at the actions of six districts in southern New Jersey that are not meeting these mandates and the actions of the Boards of Education towards student achievement and hiring teachers. Demands and requirements of federal and state legislation and policies are narrowing the areas in which school boards can take action. Those actions that are being taken appear to be led by the district Superintendent. This lack of leadership by the elected officials may eventually lead to school boards that are more and more community advisory boards and less and less governing bodies. / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study was to examine demographic characteristics, management concerns and opinions on critical issues in education of public school board members throughout the nation. An historical review of social composition, concerns and issues was conducted from studies of school board members and school boards. Recommendations as to suggested future directions in school board research were made based upon the review of studies over a 65-year period and findings from the 1977 National Survey of Local School Boards. Participants in the 1977 survey were all subscribers to the American School Board Journal, and distribution of a questionnaire to these participants was sponsored by the National School Boards Association. Respondents numbered 1,268, and the survey response rate was 39.5%. All states were represented in the survey as were all types and all sizes of school districts. Demographic profiles were determined; the rank priority of school board member management concerns was established; and level of agreement or disagreement to 3 statements in each of 5 critical education issue areas; discipline, curriculum, Federal involvement, quality of instruction and financial support of public education; was analyzed. Study findings suggested that region, district type and district size were the most influential board characteristics in relation to other characteristics, management concerns and opinions on educational issues. The personal characteristics of educational attainment, occupation and age were the most influential with respect to other characteristics, concerns and issues. With a critical eye toward supplementing the foundation for the further study of school boards, recommendations included: the suggested study of boards as collectives; the initiation of a focal center for the study of school boards on a concentrated and comparative basis; the need to assure representativeness, generalizability and utility in school board research; and several criticisms and suggestions posed to help focus future research more clearly, and aid the researcher and practitioner in making the study of school boards more utilitarian. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the strategies Texas superintendents use to both prevent and resolve conflicts between the school board-superintendent leadership team and to examine the effects of gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, experience in education, tenure as a superintendent, leadership style, and type and size of school districts on the strategies used by superintendents in Texas to prevent and resolve conflicts with school boards. This study was limited to superintendents in the state of Texas during the 2007-08 school year (approximately 1,050). The survey methodology involved an electronic questionnaire that allowed this researcher to survey the entire population of public school superintendents in Texas. The data was analyzed using the Social Sciences (SPSS, 2007) Statistical Package descriptive statistics. In order to validate the data, three superintendents from the largest districts in Texas were interviewed using a semi-structured approach to questioning using the results of the electronic survey. Based on the demographic data provided by the respondents, the typical superintendent in Texas is a married, White, non-Hispanic male, age 50 – 54 who serves a rural school district with a student enrollment of 1 – 499. He has a base salary of $85,000 to $99,999 and serves under a three-year contract and holds a master’s degree and majored in education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The typical superintendent has five to nine years of both teaching experience and site-based administrative experience and one to four years of central office administrative experience. More than 70% of the responding superintendents who held more than one superintendency reported that they left their last superintendency because of an opportunity to move to a larger district or for a higher salary. The majority of Texas school superintendents described their leadership/management style as collaborative and that human resources management was their greatest area of conflict with their school board. The factor that they report most inhibits their effectiveness was inadequate financing of schools. The strategy that the of majority Texas superintendents used to prevent and resolve conflict was to discuss the policy role of the school board with board members, participate in annual team-building activities and provide leadership training for board members. There was very little correlation between the demographic factors and strategies used by superintendents to prevent and resolve conflict. Follow-up interviews with large city superintendents provided additional information regarding specific strategies superintendents use to prevent and respond to conflict. Recommendations were made for further research regarding the role of the superintendent versus the role of the school board using qualitative research methods to further explicate the relationship between leadership/management style and strategies superintendents use to prevent and resolve conflict with school boards. / text

The purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of local school board members in Maryland regarding community participation in educational decision-making. These opinions were analyzed in relationship to board members' preference for a trustee versus delegate role relationship to the community and other factors of the socio-political environment of the school board. A questionnaire was mailed to all public school board of education members in Maryland. A return rate of 83.7 percent was obtained. Data gathered was used to determine: 1) what community groups were most involved in educational decision-making, 2) what issues school boards sought community advisory group input on, and 3) what groups had the greatest influence on board decisions. School boards were also classified by their method of selection, extent of intraboard consensus, and the metropolitanism of the district. Chi-square and regression analysis was utilized to test the consistency of influence of these elements of the socio-political environment on opinions regarding community participation in decision-making. Respondents reported the greatest involvement in educational decisions by internal groups such as parent groups, teachers' unions, and advisory groups. Board members indicated greatest receptivity to input on decisions relating to school construction and closings, curriculum and instruction, and budget. An analysis of the relative influence various groups had on school board decisions revealed that the school administration had the greatest influence on board decisions in all decision areas studied. The analysis of the influence of the socio-political environmental variables revealed the following: 1) board members' preference for a trustee versus delegate role relationship to the community was not affected by method of selection to the board, and 2) metropolitanism of the district and intraboard consensus were not found to be consistent indicators of the socio-political environment of the school board as expressed through opinions regarding community participation. / Ed. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-122).

MEDEM / Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Management