Great On Their Behalf: Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Become Effective

Book excerpt: School systems nationwide are struggling to excel as they lurch from crisis to crisis-teacher shortages, school shootings, high turnover rates, weak discipline systems, and more. These things can pull the focus of school boards away from why school systems exist: to educate students. Airick Journey Crabill has a track record of helping school systems improve student literacy, numeracy, and career and college readiness rates while simultaneously strengthening the school's financial and operational standing. Great on Their Behalf is your practical guide to igniting the transformation of your school board and enabling it to create the conditions for improving what students know and can do. Step by step, the exercises in this book inspire board members to adopt a student-outcomes-focused mindset as they reevaluate their impact on those they serve. It challenges them to explore effective ways to focus on what students need. Then it provides the necessary knowledge and skills for school boards to empower their students for success.