Voter turnout for school board elections is historically low, with tiny percentages deciding who governs schools. Columnist Jonathan E. Collins proposes a new federal holiday, School Board Election Day, to increase voter turnout and public involvement and interest in public schools. School board elections would be held on the same day nationally,…

The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center (OhSFEC) is implementing a comprehensive, scalable approach to enact state policy for family and school engagement at local levels. Joyce Epstein and Barbara Boone report how OhSFEC's research-based design, implementation, and evaluation of a leadership ladder has enabled state leaders to support…

The debate over the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) generally overlooks--or looks past--what may be the most fundamental flaw in that legislation. As the law is now written, decisions regarding what the young should know and be able to do are removed from the hands of parents and local community leaders and turned over to officials…

American education must prepare students for a world where the opportunities for success require the ability to compete and cooperate on a global scale. The federal government has played a critical role in fostering foreign language and area studies expertise at the post-secondary level. Now is the time for the federal government to engage in a…

When mayors take over education systems (as in Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland), school boards are big losers, and problems may persist. Mayoral takeovers happen for various reasons: bureaucratic dysfunction, diminishing faith in existing government structures, new demands on city governments, and perceived need for mayoral involvement. (Contains…

Summarizes leading scholars' findings in leadership theory, local politics and government, state and national school politics, and change theory. Integrating this knowledge into a systematic reform effort requires superintendents with integrity and vision; political stability; good board/superintendent relations; long-term, statewide commitment;…

With physical facilities in every neighborhood offering unique citizen access, public schools must be major players in collaborative initiatives to provide more flexible, comprehensive, and coordinated services to needy children and families. School board leadership will be vital to any efforts to develop alternative governance structures and/or…

Local system for public school governance has changed little since early twentieth century, when conception of school boards as trusteeships and superintendents as chief managers changed school-operating boards into policy boards. Since the late 1960s, local boards have reverted to politicized boards, increasingly involved in district…