Effectiveness of governance boards in traditional public school districts and community public schools in Ohio

by Woodward, Cathy Lee.

Patrick Pauken, Advisor The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any statistically significant differences in the effectiveness of board governance activities of traditional public school boards and charter (known as community) public school boards in the state of Ohio. The six categories of school board activities were defined by Smoley’s model for school board effectiveness (Smoley, 1999). The six areas of focus are (1) Making Decisions, (2) Functioning as a Group, (3) Exercising Authority, (4) Connecting to the Community, (5) Working Toward Board Improvement, and (6) Acting Strategically. The literature review explored the historical role of the traditional public school board, the emerging role of the charter school board and the board effectiveness studies of Eugene R. Smoley, Jr., the work of Richard P.Chait, Thomas P. Holland and Barbara E. Taylor, and the work of the Institute for Educational Leadership under the direction of Jacqueline P. Danzberger. A 73 item survey was sent to superintendents of Ohio’s community/charter schools and of the traditional public school district within which they are geographically located. The overall