Improving School Board Effectiveness offers a clarifying and essential look at the evolving role of school boards and how they contribute to efforts to improve student learning. It examines how board members can establish effective district priorities,and it explores those board policies and actions that result in shared, districtwide commitments to heightened student achievement. This book arises out of a critical need for a better understanding of school boards and the development of helpfultools and guidelines for school board members. At its heart is the notion of Balanced Governance, a principle that most generally "balances the authority of a superintendent to lead a school district with the necessary oversight of a locally engaged and knowledgeable board." Improving School Board Effectiveness is a helpful and practical book that will prove indispensable for school board members, school and district administrators, and everyone with a stake in school improvement and reform.

The Future of School Board Governance combines theoretical debate as well as empirical evidence of the effectiveness and relevancy of local school boards today. Original theorists of competing school board governance theories, current researchers, and researcher/practitioners provided the latest empirical data about the role of school boards as well as applications for practitioners in the field. Such a combination of readings is rarely found in a single volume. This book has a unique and distinguished set of contributors representing a virtual Who's Who among governance researchers. Many of these authors represent the major school governance theorists of the 20th century. While other books generally include only scholars from a single academic field, this list of authors includes some of the top scholars in the fields of political science, educational administration, and sociology. The authors also come from the practitioner field including numerous former school administrators, school board members and state associate directors representing over 200 years of collective experience in K-12 education.