School governance is one of those boring topics no one thinks much about and is more or less invisible — until it isn’t done right, as happened in Atlanta. It is supposed to be the main function of the nation’s almost 14,000 school boards. The tens of thousands of members generally have scant preparation for the governance tasks that await them and often possess little more knowledge of teaching and learning than what they gained during their own school days.
Governance by school boards means setting policies, not administering the schools. That role goes to the superintendent, the only person who a school board hires directly. Everyone else works for the superintendent and is hired only on the recommendation of the superintendent.
Above all else, a board should concentrate on outcomes for students. Gov. Nathan Deal had it right when he stated in a news release in January, “I will make every effort to ensure that Atlanta’s children are not harmed by the adults who have failed them.” But when it comes to school governance, it is easier to identify the problems than to fix them.
Some observers have already suggested that turning over control of the Atlanta Public Schools to Mayor Kasim Reed might be the best way to sidestep a dysfunctional school board. This solution has been pursued in Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, New York and elsewhere.
No body of research exists, though, to attest definitively to the notion that mayors are better than anyone else at getting educational results.
What are the prospects of the Atlanta school board being able to meet by Sept. 30 the six goals set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)? Let’s take a look, one by one.
1. Communicating with and engaging stakeholders. In part, this will depend on how much the troubles have raised the expectations of Atlanta’s citizens. Transparency is difficult for school boards as they may adjourn into privileged sessions to deal with personnel and legal issues. It might be worthwhile, though, for those who want to hold Atlanta’s board more accountable to look to the example in Pittsburgh, where a group called Board Watch observes and rates the board and its members at each meeting.
2. Using a mediator to help board members resolve their differences — so-called split boards — as Atlanta has had, are a bane of the democratic process. Positions turn over regularly on school boards, and there is nothing to assure that new members will be in sync with older members. Philosophical differences paralyze some boards and mediation on an ongoing basis may be essential. There is more potential for disagreement in Atlanta with its nine-member board, larger than 80 percent of the country’s school boards.
3. Bringing about ethical conduct. School boards across the country must constantly be vigilant to the intrusion of nepotism, cronyism, favoritism and patronage. The sad example of the Clayton County School Board, which also faced sanctions by SACS, illustrated the situation at its worst. Moreover, forthright board members anywhere, however well intentioned, have no way of knowing what is occurring behind the scenes.
4. Refocusing all of the board’s energies on improving teaching and learning. School boards, unless they have been well trained and harbor a sense of dedication, are too easily diverted from what is most important: the educational achievement of youngsters. Atlanta’s board could benefit from sessions with the Houston-based Center for Reform of School Systems, which has trained boards in such big cities as Charlotte and Denver to focus unblinkingly on achievement.
5. Developing and implementing a process for selecting a superintendent. Nothing a board does is more important than this task. The board would do well to retain an outside search firm to keep politics and favoritism out of the process.
6. Addressing inconsistencies in the school system’s charter. Good legal counsel should be able to help the board with this goal, probably the easiest to fulfill.
Gene I. Maeroff is the author of “School Boards in America: A Flawed Exercise in Democracy.” He is a senior fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the president of the school board in Edison, N.J.
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