These four issues of "Trustee Quarterly" focus on topics of current concern to community college trustees. The winter 1991 issue contains articles examining the trustee role in helping diverse students achieve, a reconceptualization of community college finance, the development of a statewide communications plan by the Washington trustees, an…

For effective schools, leadership is vital. As the structure of American education evolved, a model of how a local school board should function emerged. The model is briefly summarized and research on educational leadership, challenges of school board service in New York State, and responsibilities of school boards are discussed. Key leadership…

Boards and commissions, an important part of Catholic education since the late 1800s, experienced a significant revival in the decades following the Vatican Council II. Today, approximately 68 percent of the Catholic schools in the United States have some form of educational governance structure. Although the primary focus of this handbook, which…

Reciprocal evaluations of and by trustees and the head of an independent school should meausure performance against clearly established expectations, framed in accordance with the mission and philosophy of the school itself. Such evaluations should be regular, candid, objective, and constructive, reenforcing effective performance as well as…

This paper presents examples of judicial reasoning in conflicts involving governing board bias and the power to decide in higher education and in various public school settings. Two cases, "Simard v. Board of Education" and "Hortonville Joint School District No. 1 v. Hortonville Education Association," provide the general…

To help educators improve their school public relations program, this handbook discusses how to develop an internal school communications program. Chapter 1 explains that schools need effective internal communications systems because school employees are important in communicating with the public. Chapter 2 covers the development of a strong…

This speech proposes an approach to evaluating principals that incorporates strategies for motivating principals to improve. The first step is to abandon the "middle management mentality" by granting full decision-making authority to principals over matters directly pertaining to their schools, such as teacher employment, use of allocated funds,…

The objective of this study was to examine the interaction between professional and bureaucratic decisional environments in schools and discover the impact of this interaction on the processes of educational governance. A case study methodology was used to gather data; the analysis was conducted within a conceptual framework of organization…

Effective evaluation for curriculum change means that evaluation must become an integral part of instruction and decision-making. This integration begins with the first awareness of a curriculum problem and is maintained until the curriculum change is incorporated into the regular instructional sequence. Six major components of the evaluation…

The superintendent is a crucial determinant in the performance of a district's professional staff. A good working relationship between the board and the superintendent is essential; they must realize they are, respectively, the lay members and the professional member of the same team. The superintendent is responsible for informing the board,…

The evolution and role of the lay board of control (trustees, directors) of higher educational institutions and the part the board has played or may play in maintaining diversity in the American system are examined. The evolution of the lay board in the United States and in the United Kingdom is described. The lay board has become "the…

Responsibilities of trustees that are common to all types of colleges and universities are examined. The following areas are addressed: (1) appointing the president, (2) supporting the president, (3) assessing the president's performance, (4) clarifying the institution's mission, (5) approving long-range plans, (6) approving the educational…

There are a number of factors that combine to discourage public involvement in urban education, which in turn tends to discourage public leadership. The situation of city school boards has changed because of extensive regulation and collective bargaining. Most people will do nothing unless those with an especially large stake in the health of…

Boards of trustees and heads of private elementary and secondary schools need to engage in some form of annual evaluation as a means of achieving greater stability in the relations between head administrators and governing boards, according to the authors. This paper briefly explores the philosophical ramifications of evaluation and outlines…

This case study examined the recent history of a southwestern school district of approximately 80,000 students and its 1977 school board election. The results of the study provide evidence supporting the theory linking the complexity of a school district with electoral competition and with open conflict on the board and between the board and the…