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ABOUT US
COMMUNICATIONS
ADVOCACY
- Report for IFC Subcommittee on Federal Stimulus Oversight, January 2010
- State Superintendent's Legislative Summary
- NASB Report on 2009 Legislative Action
- Legislative Contact Information
- Your Money At Work - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
- State Recovery by the Council of State Governments
- Economic Stimulus 2009 by the National Conference of State Legislatures
- What Do We Know About Nevada Students
- Feasibility of SafetyRestraints on School Buses
BOARDSMANSHIP
- From Stewardship to Leadership
- Why School Boards
- Keys To Board Excellence
- Individual Trustee & School Board
- 5 Characteristics of an Effective School Board
- Building Excellence
- American Imperative: Public Education
- Certified Public Official Program
- What Does the School Board Do
- Qualifications and Qualities
- Governing for Student Success
- Template for School Board Trustee Code of Conduct
- Telling Your Story
- Improving School Board Decision - Making: The Data Connection
- Leading Effective Board Meetings
- Tips For Shorter Meetings
- Parliamentary Motions Guide
- School Boards at the Dawn of the 21st Century
- Superintendent Tenure
- Board President Evaluation
RESEARCH AND DATA
- Quick Stats 2009
- Quick Facts 2009
- Rankings of the States and Estimates of Statistics 2007/2008
- Quality Counts 2008
- NDE Research Bulletin
- Education Vital Signs 2008
- Nevada Report Card
- State Budget Troubles Worsen
- The Funding Gap 2007
- Quality Counts Nevada 2007
- Quality Counts Nevada 2006
- Quick Facts 2007
- Quick Stats 2007
For information about Superintendent Searches, Please click here.
A MESSAGE FROM NASB'S PRESIDENT
The American School Board Journal’s January 2010 edition included an article titled “The Board’s Role in Innovation” authored by Douglas Reeves. Most of you will recall that Dr. Reeves is founder of the Leadership and Learning Center which provides professional development services, research, and solutions for educators and school leaders who serve students from prekindergarten through college.
I totally agree with Dr. Reeves’ assertion that in the 21st century “school board members face new responsibilities with historic consequences.” In Nevada, we know all too well that almost every district faces significant long-term inadequacies in education funding, which means board members must expand their traditional horizons of hiring and firing of the superintendent, establishing major policy, and sustaining good relationships with the community and its voters.
Dr. Reeves describes a phenomenon that will sound familiar to most of us: The Law of Initiative Fatigue. Those of us who are more experienced board members have seen this over and over as board members. Every new initiative begins with a champion who sincerely believes that the new schedule or curriculum or teaching practice or board policy or other initiative will have a hugely beneficial impact on education. At the same time, what we have also observed is that many new initiatives fail and the implementation rate seems to be pretty bleak.
Dr. Reeves makes a suggestion that I would encourage all of us to consider. That is, look back at the initiatives discussed in your board minutes five years ago and ask how many of those are implemented today. We may discover that, as one initiative lands on top of another, a fixed or declining amount of resources has been divided among increasingly more initiatives, resulting in each one receiving a smaller amount of time, resources, effort, energy, and leadership attention.
Dr. Reeves suggests that board members have a tool to confront the Law of Initiative Fatigue and using it will help focus our attention and energy while building credibility with teachers, parents, and the community. “Most important, this tool will help focus scarce resources of time, money, and leadership attention in the right attention.”
He advocates use of the implementation audit, through which board members ask three essential questions:
- What is our initiative inventory?
- What is the range of implementation for each initiative?
- What is the relationship between implementation and student results?
I am of the same mind with Dr. Reeves that the board’s role is to create a process that elevates evidence over untested claims, especially claims about student achievement. Promoting and participating in the implementation audit is one way to recognize that every initiative begins with good intentions but we must more determinedly “notice” that there are too many priorities and not enough time to attend to all of them. Asking these questions is not to impugn the goals or professionalism of the people who started them. Like Dr. Reeves, I emphasize that the implementation audit is not a “witch hunt.”
The implementation audit must focus on the questions that we should be asking ourselves again and again as board members: “What is the evidence that you have to support this practice? What is the relationship between implementa-tion and student results?” If we focus on these questions, everyone will be less defensive about initiatives that once sounded promising but now must be terminated.
Dr. Reeves goes on to say that “the easiest budget cuts are programs that no one uses and that have minimal effects on student results. Rather than cut 15 percent from every budget, boards and leaders should identify some programs for 100 percent cuts, and others for increases.”
I want to plant the seed that each Nevada school board should consider engaging in an implementation audit in connection with discussions about future budget cuts. As we focus relentlessly on student achievement, doing so will build our capacity for making budget decisions in tough times.
More next month on the specifics of the initiative inventory.
NASB President
775/841-3687
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