Supporting Transformational Education Governance in New England

Through our grantmaking, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation seeks to build the capacity of local communities to transform their school systems into high-performing, equitable, student-centered bodies that prepare all learners for college and career. Over the past several years, we have supported the efforts of school districts to adopt student-centered learning practices.[1] However, as we grapple with how to scale, sustain, and spread such efforts, it has become increasingly clear that we must also consider the critical role education governance plays in this work. Helping districts make the shift from traditional school systems that work well for some to flexible and student-centered school systems that work for all is a complicated endeavor, a shift that can only be accomplished with significant changes to current education governance purposes, practices, and policies.
According to Paul Hill, research professor at the University of Washington Bothell, education governance consists of “the rules made by school boards, legislatures, and bureaucracies, and the actions those bodies take to make sure the rules are followed.”[2] In the U.S., education governance is a multi-layered system. Congress, state education agencies and legislatures, local school boards, local city and town councils, and unions, among other entities, all play a role and share authority in developing the rules and administrative processes that govern schools and prescribe allowable activities.
These various governing entities make (or fail to make) critical decisions about human capital, curriculum, instruction, assessment accountability, as well as those that affect district and school beliefs and culture. Additionally, these governing entities determine how schooling is defined, how schools are funded, control class size, and determine how time is used. Given the fundamental connection between school performance and the policies set by education governance, the improvement of school performance is only possible through aligned, effective, results-oriented and value-added governance.
Last year, in an effort to engage the field on the topic of education governance, the Foundation sponsored seven forums throughout New England. Over 500 stakeholders took part in the forums. Participants included state education officials, state legislators, local school board members, superintendents, teachers, students, community leaders, among others. The purpose of the forums was to spark conversation about the central role governance plays in education reform, surface current challenges, and generate ideas on how to improve education governance systems.
During the forums, we explained that, in New England, only 50 percent of students (32 percent of low-income students) who enter high school as freshmen will graduate ready for college,[3] and that our current public education system is not designed to ensure all students graduate ready for college and career. We contended, and participants agreed, that ineffective governance contributes to these low and unequal college and career readiness results. Participants identified, at the state and local levels, the following education governance challenges:
High turnover of leadership (e.g., frequent rotation of school board members and turnover of superintendents) and the associated destabilization of efforts;
Limited or unproductive engagement of key stakeholders (e.g., parents, students, and community members) in identifying needs and problems, visioning, strategic planning, decision-making, and continuous improvement processes;
Multi-layered, fragmented, compliance-driven, and politicized nature of education governance. Congress, state education agencies and legislatures, local school boards, local city and town councils, and unions, among other entities, all have roles and authority in developing the rules and administrative processes that govern schools. However, taken together, these rules and processes often conflict, constrain, and challenge the ability of schools to innovate and improve and be results focused;
Limited knowledge of student-centered learning practices and fear that attempting to implement such practices might lead to failure;
Contentious labor-management relations and industrial era collective bargaining agreements that inhibit collaboration and constrain innovation;
Limited research on education governance practices or models that lead to college and career readiness for all students; and
Superficial or lack of focus on ensuring all students graduate ready for college and career.
All of these challenges are related to systems elements (e.g., culture, rules, structures, and practices) and not related to the characteristics, profiles, or inferred motivations of any one particular set of actors within school systems. We believe that communities and school systems must rethink these system elements because they are currently constraining innovation and effective governance, and supporting persistently low and disparate college and career readiness.
To address the above challenges with education governance and accomplish its college and career readiness goal, the Foundation is launching a Transformative Education Governance Grant Program with the following goals:
Create new education governance designs focused on ensuring all students graduate from high school ready for college and career;
Refocus governance on ensuring equitable access to high level renditions of student-centered learning (i.e., learning that is personalized, engaging, competency-based, and happens anytime, anywhere) that lead to college and career readiness for all students; and
Foster new student-centered governance models that employ distinctly different approaches to collaboration, leadership stabilization, systems coherence and alignment, and distribution of decision-making authority and accountability.
To learn more about the foundation’s transformative governance grant fund, read our request for proposals.
[1] For a description of the four tenets of student-centered learning, please see Putting Student at the Center: A Reference Guide.
[2] Paul T. Hill, “Rethinking Governance” in What Lies Ahead for America’s Children, ed. Chester E. Finn, Jr. (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2014), 11.
[3] NMEF defines readiness as graduating high school and entering college without the need for remediation.

