1. Exceptional
governance teams
School governance in an era of accountability
Phil Gore, M.Ed.
Director, Leadership Development Services
www.wssda.org

2. Preparation
Governance
Teams
Improving
Governance
WSSDA

3. What specific preparation or
experience have you had that equips
you to work for five democratically
selected citizens, who may have no
specific knowledge of education?

4. Options for working with a
board
• Manage them well
• Keep them uninformed
• Keep them overwhelmed
• Avoid them
• Coddle them
• Confuse them
• Lead them
• Serve them
• Partner with them

5. There is significant potential to develop school
boards and build their capacity for exceptional
governance that improves student learning.
– Knowledge about what matters most in school
improvement
– Active engagement in key board roles that make a
difference in the effectiveness of schools
– Policy-making that influences the system around
what matters
– Leadership development and teambuilding
The superintendent as a
servant-leader

6. What are characteristics of an
exceptional school board?

7. Washington School Board
Standards
1. Provide responsible school board governance.
2. Set and communicate high expectations for student
learning with clear goals and plans for meeting
those expectations.
3. Create conditions district-wide for student and staff
success.
4. Hold school district accountable for meeting
student learning expectations.
5. Engage local community and represent the values
and expectations they hold for their schools.

8. Responsible School
Governance
Communicate high
expectations for student
learning with clear goals &
plans
Hold school district
accountable for
student learning
expectations
Create conditions for
student and staff success
Engage
community &
represent the
values and
expectations
they hold for
their schools.

9. The short story
• There is no ‘one size fits all’ for exceptional
governance, and school boards need latitude
to perform their roles, but …
• School boards today see improving
student learning as a priority, even in
difficult financial times. Many are actively
setting goals for improvement, creating
the conditions for quality teaching and
providing meaningful and supportive
accountability for results.

10. What is exceptional?
Characteristics of Exceptional School Boards
1. Strong commitment to high expectations for all
students (5 studies)
2. Maintains focus on clear goals for achievement
and instructional improvement (8 studies)
3. Establishes accountability systems for monitoring
and evaluating progress (5-7 studies)
4. Provides supports for professional development
(7 studies)
5. Takes part in team development and training
(4 studies)

11. The Latest Data
Highly Qualified School Boards Survey
• National survey of board members &
superintendents, conducted late 2009
• 1,020 respondents in 418 school districts
nationwide, in districts enrolling 1,000+ students
• NSBA, IASB/ISBF, Thomas Fordham Institute;
funded by grant from the Wallace Foundation
• Many questions aligned with Iowa Lighthouse
research on effective school governance
• Results to be released publicly at the end of 2010

12. Exceptional school boards are committed
to high expectations for each student.
VISION

13. Some combination of leaders—school board
members, superintendents and community
members—acknowledged poor performance
without placing blame, accepted ownership
of difficult challenges, and began seeking
solutions … What distinguished the districts
was not the existence of a vision, but the
way it was actively used. (Learning First Alliance)
Beyond Islands of Excellence

14. Set and communicate
high expectations for
student learning with
clear goals and plans
for meeting those
expectations.
STANDARDS
ASSESSMENT
ALIGNMENT

15. In districts with higher levels of student
achievement, the school board is aligned
with and supportive of the non-negotiable
goals for achievement and instruction. The
board ensures that these goals remain the
top priorities in the district and that no other
initiatives detract attention or resources from
accomplishing these goals.
School District Leadership that Works: The Effect of Superintendent Leadership on
Student Achievement, by Timothy Waters and Robert Marzano. Mid-continent Research for Education
and Learning, 2006.
McREL Research

17. Hold school
district
accountable for
meeting student
learning
expectations
Accountability

18. Traditionally, boards have received ‘reports,’ usually
annually. This work differs … by involving more
frequent data study, on an ongoing basis
throughout the year. The board and staff then have
time to take corrective action (two to four times per
year). This combination of studying student
achievement data more frequently and having
implementation data about improvement initiatives
gave the Lighthouse boards a much clearer picture
of where the district is headed … and what kinds of
supports are required to accelerate
improvement.
• -Iowa School Boards Foundation, Preliminary Report on Lighthouse II, 2007
Lighthouse Research

19. ALIGNMENT
Effective boards
provide supports for
teacher collaboration
and professional
development

20. Districts adopted new approaches to
professional development. To varying
degrees, they all rejected the traditional,
one-time workshop approach to
developing teacher skill. Instead, they
implemented coherent, district-organized
strategies to improve instruction, using
research-based principles of professional
development. (Learning First Alliance)
Beyond Islands of Excellence

21. CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
Exceptional
boards take part
in team
development
and training

22. • Be considerably more knowledgeable about
district programs and practices
• Have a clearer sense of what they wanted
to accomplish, based on a set of firmly held
values and beliefs
• Engage in activities that provided them with
opportunities to articulate and discuss these
values and beliefs
LaRocque & Coleman found
successful boards were more likely to:

23. The board members found it necessary to
create time to learn together as a board
team and engage in extensive dialogue with
each other in order to establish consensus
about what was most important to
accomplish, to understand what it would
take to succeed, and to determine at what
cost they were willing to pursue it.
Lighthouse Research

24. Our mission
The Washington State School
Directors’ Association provides
leadership, advocacy and
services to support public school
directors’ efforts to improve
student learning.

25. Communicating
SCHOOL
BOARDS
MATTER
(and so does
board learning)

26. The school board is in a unique
position to enact policies that will
catalyze the coordination of the building-
and district-level resources so essential
for school reform to succeed. Indeed,
school boards are the linchpin of the
local governance structure.… If
‘powerful’ comprehensive school reforms
are to be sustained, a persuasive case
can be made that they will have ‘shallow
roots’ without the support and
understanding of local authorities
focused on student achievement.
– Michael Usdan, Kappan, March 2010

27. References
Carol, L.N., Cunningham, L.L. Danzberger, J.P., Kirst,
M.W., McCloud, B.A., & Usdan, M.D. (1986). School
boards: Strengthening grass roots leadership.
Washington, DC: Institute for Educational Leadership.
Goodman, R.H., Fulbright, L., & Zimmerman, W.G. (1997).
Getting there from here: School board-superintendent
collaboration: Creating a school governance team
capable of raising student achievement. Arlington, VA:
Education Research Service & New England School
Development Council.
Iowa Association of School Boards. Lighthouse Studies
1996-2008.

28. Land, D. (2002). Local school boards under review, their
role and effectiveness in relation to students’ academic
achievement. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University,
Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed
at Risk.
LaRocque, L. and P. Coleman (1993). The politics of
excellence: Trustee leadership and school district ethos.
The Alberta Journal of Educational Research XXXIX(4),
449-475.
Petersen, G.J. & Fusarelli, LD. (2008). Systemic leadership
amidst turbulence. In T. Alsbury (Ed.), The future of
school board governance: Relevancy and revelation (pp.
115-134). Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

29. Snipes, J., Doolittle, F. & C. Herlihy. (2002). Foundation for
success: Case studies for how urban school districts
improve student achievement. Washington, DC: Council of
the Great City Schools.
Togneri, W., & Anderson, S. E. (2003). Beyond islands of
excellence: What districts can do to improve instruction and
achievement in all schools. Washington, DC: Learning First
Alliance.
Waters, T. & Marzano R. (2006). School district leadership
that works: The effect of superintendent leadership on
student achievement. Denver: Mid-continent Research for
Education and Learning.