THE INFLUENCE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON SCHOOL BOARD EFFECTIVENESS AS PERCEIVED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT

The positions of the school board and superintendent have been in place for years and in that time not only have the dynamics of education changed, but the societal structures have also evolved. This quantitative study examined the relationships that exist between the school board’s engagement in training and professional development and their effectiveness in the areas of creating a vision, using data, establishing goals, communication, and trust. All aspects of the board’s effectiveness and engagement in training were scored based on the superintendent’s perception of them using the Effective Board Leadership Practices Survey. Using the Spearman’s p correlation coefficient, significant correlations were found between board training and all five of the forementioned characteristics. The strongest correlation was found between the board training variable and the goal-setting variable. While still significant, the weakest correlation was found between the board training variable and the use of data variable. The impact of this study for superintendents is to gain a better understanding of often used educational terms in the strategic planning process and offer potential improvements in implementing these different characteristics. The study recommends that superintendents should build trust with their school boards by facilitating ongoing training in the processes used to develop the district’s vision, processes used to define the district’s goals, and using data to not only make decisions, but to monitor the progress of those decisions. The study also recommends that superintendents need to understand the importance of working with the board to effectively communicate these different processes with the community stakeholders.