When we think about how the average school is run we are likely to remember our own school days and think about the role that the principal has in setting and enforcing policy for the school. However, while it is of course important to acknowledge the effect that principals and other high-ranking school site administrators have a vital role to play in the decision-making process at every school, they are simply one part of the decision-making process that guides the educational process at the local level. They rely in turn on guidance and policy established by school districts and these district boards in turn rely upon the guidance of the Board of Education. This paper examines the role of a Board of Education in providing leadership to schools and - by extension - to the larger community that the schools are a part of.
The role (and therefore the leadership responsibilities) of each Board of Education is different, for some states grant more authority to their Boards of Education and some grant relatively little. This description of the Board of Education in Michigan is typical of the duties that such boards have across the nation:
Leadership and general supervision over all public education, including adult education and instructional programs in state institutions, except as to institutions of higher education granting baccalaureate degrees, is vested in a State Board of Education. It shall serve as the general planning and coordinating body for all public education, including higher education, and shall advise the Legislature as to the financial requirements in connection therewith (http://www.michigan.gov/mde/1,1607,7-140-5373---,00.html).
A staff member who serves as a liaison with the State Legislature said that the role of the board is to balance short-term and long-term perspectives:
At the level of the district, and certainly at the level of each individual school, there are a thousand things to do everyday. Ev...