The National Center on School Choice is funded by the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The Center exercises national leadership in school choice research, including charter and magnet schools, private school vouchers, teacher recruitment, school management, and state policymaking.

Peabody College at Vanderbilt University
The Center's lead institution is Vanderbilt University, a national private university located in Nashville, Tennessee. The Center is managed by the Learning Sciences Institute on the campus of Peabody College, one of the nation's top graduate schools of education. Learn more

Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics

AUTHORS:
William G. Howell


PUBLISHED BY:
Brookings Institution Press
(2005)



School boards are fighting for their survival. Today almost everything they do is subject to increasing regulation—by city council, state boards of education, state legislatures, and state and federal courts. And as recent mayoral and state takeovers in some cities make abundantly clear, school boards that do not fulfill the expectations of excellence defined by other political players may be stripped of what few independent powers they still retain.

In Besieged, a group of renowned scholars, relying on careful case studies and quantitative analysis, systematically examine this and other issues, assembling new evidence on the powers of school boards, their operations, and most important, the politics that surround them. The picture that emerges is a sobering one.

The complete edition of Besieged is available from Brookings Institution Press, but a sample chapter may be downloaded from the National Center on School Choice website.


Downloads


__Editors' Introduction
__William Howell