Week 2 Post for Saving Schools

Based on the lecture videos and required readings for this week, discuss what you feel the role of the local school board should be in the 21st century.

The Lost at Sea reading does bring up some good points about who might be on school boards, and the various agendas they would have.  This reading as well as the video also talks about how while school boards are elected, they're elected by such a small minority of people that it's not really participatory democracy at work.  Like any system or set of organizations, some of them are going to work extremely well, and some not as well.  To say that we should do away with school boards because some of them aren't very good is not a solution.

I think we still do need some local accountabilty and a system of checks and balances.  Having a school board that can look over the schools and provide some outside perspective is important.  As the Steering a True Course reading notes, some school boards are pushing for educational reform and establishing even more rigorous accountability measures than the state.  And the same reading talks about how there still need to be financial oversight.

I see the role of local school boards as providing more accountability and oversight, and giving the local community a way to participate in the schools.  Now that we have more professional administration (superintendents, etc), the school board doesn't need to be involved in the running of the schools, but rather should be more a board of advisors who can look at the overall picture and help with strategy.  We don't need people who are just going to say yes to various measures that the administrators are already doing, we need people who can help the administrators plan and change in order to better serve the students.