Board Items, Assessment Concerns, & Internal Auditing

TESBC: First, congrats on working with your client to update their policies to ensure that the board and community have earlier access to board items. Sadly, most boards still receive this information only three days in advance and the community only 24hrs in advance. Our recommendation is that school boards receive the complete set of materials related to each board item 7 to 14 days in advance of the meeting at which the items will be considered. And when we say complete materials, we mean everything -- contracts, evaluations, staff presentations, etc. If there's room for refinement of their policies, now is a suitable time to make those adjustments.

Second, changes of this nature aren't quick. Expect 2 to 4 months for the administration to realign their practices to accommodate any change in the board item timeline. That counter starts after the board adopts the policy change, so ideally the administration had a few weeks or months before adoption to plan implementation. If this time hasn't passed, encourage your client to be patient -- and if not, they can ask the superintendent for an updated timeline.

Finally, if the time has passed, the board needs to start enforcing its policy. This largely falls to the board chair, though they may need coaching from you. After the 3-4 month deadline, the board chair should decline to place any non-compliant items on the next board meeting agenda. Instead, they should be queued for the following meeting. Often, in an attempt to change the board chair's mind, the superintendent will argue that not adopting the item in the current month will <insert bad thing>. The board chair's response should be: "so you're saying you violated board policy and caused <insert bad thing>?" Normally, that's enough to encourage the superintendent to find a policy-appropriate manner to handle the current month's situation while preparing for the next. As long as the board stands its ground -- starting with the board chair -- and enforces its policy, I haven't seen it take a superintendent more than a month to get their team in compliance. However, if the board waivers, this will never happen and the policy might as well be deleted.

TESBC:  Like many concerns about this work, this one reflects a legitimate fear: that accountability can be weaponized to harm students and demoralize teachers. And that fear isn’t unfounded — poor instructional leadership and weak implementation can turn well-intentioned tools into blunt instruments. But blaming the assessments is like blaming a thermometer for a fever.

When a hospital notices many patients have high temperatures, the response isn’t to stop using thermometers — it’s to investigate the root causes of the illness and improve treatment. Thermometers don’t cause sickness; they reveal it. Avoiding their appropriate use undermines why hospitals exist: to improve patient outcomes. Similarly, when a school board member sees assessments contributing to a toxic, test-centered culture, the solution isn’t to abandon assessment. It’s to improve their use — to guide instruction, inform families, and most importantly, to support improved student outcomes. Avoiding their appropriate use undermines why school systems exist: to improve student outcomes.

What can school boards do to lead on this topic? Plenty! First, the school board selects the Goals and Guardrails which define the prioritized data, so taking the time to do a deep dive into assessment is important. Start with the chapter on understanding assessment in the book, "Great On Their Behalf." Nothing in our coaching requires Goals to focus on state assessment (though some state laws do). Our coaching is that the board should adopt whatever Goals match the community's prioritized student outcomes vision. For example, the book "Our Tools They Deserve" shares examples of standardized assessment for measuring students' ability to demonstrate self-regulation and metacognition. If those are the community's prized knowledge and skills, the board's Goals will push toward assessment of them. The assessment the Goals call for significantly impacts instruction and pedagogy.

Second, if there’s a community value around inappropriate use of assessments and their data, a school board could draft a Guardrail to protect this value.

Third, if the internal auditor reports to the school board (true in some states, untrue in others) and there are concerns that the misuse of assessment is risking improvements in student outcomes, this may be an issue deserving of a performance audit.

When these issues arise, school boards must listen to the concerns and understand the underlying vision and values behind them. Then, equipped with that information, the board should neither overreact (downplaying, denigrating, or deleting assessment without warrant) nor avoid acting (identifying and using the appropriate governance tool).

In the last newsletter, we shared about a district where the local newspaper — relying on unnamed sources — reported that the superintendent is being accused of being abusive. You all had many perspectives. Some said they'd ignore unnamed sources (which, as the paper pointed out, is different from anonymous sources). Some said they'd immediately put the superintendent on leave. Some said it's not the board's job to deal with staff level drama.

Allegations against the superintendent are board work. But the school board typically lacks enough information. Thus, these situations likely warrant an independent, external investigation. The independent investigator's task is to return a finding that the allegations are either substantiated or unsubstantiated. Having the discipline and professionalism to not comment on ongoing personnel/investigative matters is an important first step. Getting more information is usually the next step.

In this district, a school board member is accused of leaking student IEP data to the public. Now there may be an effort to have the board member removed under state law. Would you support such an effort? Why or why not? Go here to share what you would do in this situation. In the next newsletter, we'll share your responses and our coaches' thoughts.

Many school systems already have an education foundation to support them. This district is considering opening one.

Here's another district that's leaning into student leadership at the governance level.

Total Minutes: 140mins

Minutes Focused on Student Outcomes: 0mins

Key Topics: student recognitions, bonds, facilities, technology plan, calendar

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