Building Great School Board -- Superintendent Teams


Book Description

To address urgent challenges and drive continuous improvement effectively, school board members, superintendents, and school leaders must develop strong school board/superintendent teams. The authors offer a systematic approach for establishing a unified school leadership team that can efficiently meet demands, avoid conflict, and respond to the ever-changing educational environment. Each chapter includes professional development activities that can be adapted for teams of any size. Learn how to build an effective school leadership team: Consider how the school board/superintendent team can remain sustainable and productive in governance, instructional leadership, and school improvement. Foster committed team relationships and develop effective school leadership practices and qualities within the team. Clarify superintendents' and school board members' roles and responsibilities to improve governance and avoid conflict. Learn characteristics of effective communication and how to speak with one unified voice as a team. Participate in team professional development activities that build trust, respect, transparency, and accountability among the team. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Legal Perspectives and the Case for Local Control Chapter 2: Induction and New Team Member Orientation Chapter 3: Team Members' Roles and Responsibilities Chapter 4: Effective Communication and a Unified Voice Chapter 5: Team Decision Making Chapter 6: Committed, Effective Team Leadership Chapter 7: Foundational Statements Chapter 8: Continuous Improvement and Quality Assurance Chapter 9: Governance and Leadership During Change Chapter 10: Dysfunctional Teams and Rogue Members Chapter 11: System Evaluation Essentials Chapter 12: The Future of the School Board-Superintendent Team References and Resources




Building Relationships, Yielding Results


Book Description

Provides a clear road map for effective collaboration with school boards and the type of relationship-building required to achieve long-term, sustainable reforms. Instead of keeping school board members at arm's length, Julie L. Hackett demonstrates how to tailor traditional superintendent activities to include board members and increase understanding and trust.




Effective Superintendent-School Board Practices


Book Description

Superintendents and board members are provided real-life vignettes highlighting challenges and successes, information on building relationships and managing conflict, and reflective practice questions and self-assessment.




Leadership Teaming


Book Description

A principal and a superintendent present experience- and research-based strategies for developing strong superintendent-principal teams through leadership, communication, and collaboration.




Getting There from Here


Book Description

"With the support of a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, NESDEC formed a research team that launched a year-long national study focused on school board-superintendent collaboration for higher student achievement. The goal of the research was to identify outstanding examples of school board-superintendent teamwork and, and from them, develop recommendations that could help every school board superintendent in America become an effective team working together for student achievement. These recommendations are the focus of Getting There from Here"--Page 2.




The Essential School Board Book


Book Description

2009 Notable Education Book, American School Board Journal The Essential School Board Book highlights effective practices that are common to high-functioning boards around the country—boards that are working successfully with their superintendents and communities to improve teaching and learning. Amid today’s heightened attention on student achievement, school boards find their responsibilities intensified and transformed. In this age of accountability, all school boards need to consider how best to maintain a focus on student achievement and promote it through district and school policies. In a highly readable and accessible fashion, the book summarizes research linking school board practices to student achievement. It features stories of sixteen diverse boards around the country—elected and appointed; rural, urban, and suburban—and the policies and procedures they have employed to enhance student achievement. Also included is a resource section for those investigating successful school board policies and practices in more depth.




The Board-Savvy Superintendent


Book Description

Rather than being preoccupied with developing a static structure of policies to distinguish the board's role from the superintendent's, the book describes how the board and superintendent can creatively work together in making decisions about such critical governing "products" as values, vision, mission, and strategic change initiatives."--Jacket.




Peak Performing Governance Teams


Book Description

The underlying reason for most school superintendent turnover is a breakdown in the board-superintendent relationship. This book presents a comprehensive set of practical strategies and structures that will help ensure effective governance team practices become a permanent way of doing business in the school district. While it is written primarily for K-12 school superintendents, it is also a must-read for anyone aspiring to the role, members of a superintendent's leadership team, and school board members interesting in creating a governance team that works at an optimal level for the benefit of all children.




Governing at the Top


Book Description

Doug Eadie’s Governing at the Top: Building a Board-Superintendent Strategic Governing Team is both a powerful addition to the K-12 governance literature and a practical guidebook for school board members, superintendents, and senior administrators. Opening with a crystal-clear, eminently practical definition of the work of governing that goes well-beyond the outdated notion of “policy making,” this exciting new book then takes a close look at the key elements involved in building the kind of rock-solid board-superintendent governing partnership that these changing, challenging times demand. After describing the critical role of a “board-savvy” superintendent in the governing partnership, Doug examines in detail how board-superintendent teams can go about developing the board’s governing “architecture” (the board’s governing role, its members, and its committee structure), mapping out processes for active board member engagement in governing work, and keeping the board-superintendent working relationship healthy.




Eight Keys to an Extraordinary Board-Superintendent Partnership


Book Description

This book draws on author Doug Eadie's work with hundreds of boards to provide detailed, hands-on guidance for building and managing a board-superintendent partnership that is close, positive, productive, and enduring. Eadie describes how the superintendent can wear the "chief partnership officer" hat while leading and managing a board-superintendent partnership program. Special attention is paid to such critical partnership building tools such as: · Empowering the board · Building board member ownership of their governing work · Making governing work easier and more fun · Involving senior administrators in providing executive support to the board For superintendents, school board members, and school system senior administrators.