International School Board Study: School Governance Structures, Processes, and Systems
Thank you for taking the time to participate in this very important and historic FIRST ever international survey of school board members. You are being invited to participate in a study that will ultimately be distributed to school board members and their international counterparts across 21 of the highest achieving countries in the world. You have been invited to participate in Phase I of the study which includes the United States, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Scotland. The purpose of this research study is to examine the structures, processes, and systems of educational governance across the globe in order to develop a better understanding of a) the strengths and weaknesses of local control of education, and b) the influence local control of education has in countries where educational governance is becoming increasingly controlled at the federal or national level. We need your help in gathering more specific details about the ramifications of increased centralization of educational policy at the federal level in the United States and abroad.
The primary researchers of this study were also integrally involved with the recent NSBA national study you may have responded to as well. We are confident your responses along with your international counterparts responses will allow us to empirically demonstrate the importance of local control and its link to democracy and student learning. If successful, our hope is a new-found interest in increased resources from state and federal agencies to support the role of local school governance and, of course, the important work you do for children across this country and others.
Your voluntary participation will involve an electronic survey that will take approximately 25 minutes to complete. You may refuse to participate or may discontinue participation at any time during the project, and it will have no adverse effect on your status at or future relationship with the UCEA Joint Center for Research on School District Governance. There are no foreseeable physical risks associated with this research. You may benefit from articulating your beliefs about your role in local school governance.
If you have any questions or concerns about this study please contact me by e-mail at mmountfo@fau.edu, or Thomas Alsbury at alsburyt@spu.edu or Mary Delagardelle at maryd613@mac.com, or if you have any problems with the electronic survey please contact Mack Shelley at mshelley@iastate.edu.
Before proceeding to the survey, please complete the requested demographic information in the first few questions. Please note: The information we are requesting regarding the specific district, city, state, country, and enrollment of your district will be converted to numeric ID codes for data analysis purposes only. This information will remain anonymous to the researchers and kept confidential for seven years and then destroyed. It will never be linked to you or your specific school district.