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Few studies have examined the impact of governing board decision processes on board and organizational outcomes. This study draws on research on small work teams in the private sector to develop expectations about the relationship between outcomes and one aspect of board dynamics that affects decision making: intraboard conflict. Using administrative and survey data from school board members and school district superintendents in California, I show a consistent pattern of negative associations between board conflict and outcomes at multiple organizational levels. An instrumental variables strategy utilizing institutional variation in board member election type confirms that board conflict can lead to negative outcomes. The findings suggest that existing conceptualizations of board roles should be broadened to incorporate the interpersonal dynamics that inform board decision making. Adapted from the source document.

A large body of management research has linked participation by employees in organizational decision making to employee-level outcomes such as job satisfaction, with nearly all studies finding positive associations. This study questions whether the impact of employee policy influence on employee-level outcomes is contingent on management effectiveness, hypothesizing that employee outcomes may be negatively affected by the exercise of influence if participation is facilitated poorly or comes in response to a void created by inadequate organizational management. Focusing specifically on employee turnover in a nationwide sample of 6,300 public schools, the study finds strong evidence of an interactive effect. While employees are less likely to turn over under effective managers regardless of their degree of organizational policy influence, under ineffective managers turnover increases as employees' perceived influence increases. Results suggest that investment in management competence may be a necessary precondition for some public organizations to benefit from increasing participation.

This article examines the influence of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on decision-making conflict on governing boards in public organizations. Using survey data from more than 700 school board members in California, I investigate the degree to which various characteristics of the environment in which the board operates, processes the board implements, and traits of board members themselves predict how often the board experiences division among its members and how well its members report being able to work together. The findings point out that external characteristics play a large role in predicting intraboard conflict. In particular, boards in urban districts with large numbers of nonwhite students and more active interest group environments experience greater conflict. However, internal characteristics also make a difference. Boards that use more professional decision practices and whose members share a common vision for their work experience conflict at substantially lower rates. Also, whereas ideological heterogeneity among board members positively predicts conflict, contrary to expectations, racial diversity is associated with less division among board members. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractClassroom observations are the largest component of evaluation ratings given to teachers in the multiple‐measure evaluation systems states have implemented in the last decade. Using data from the first eight years of Tennessee's teacher evaluation system, we document race and gender gaps in observation ratings and ask whether these gaps reflect true differences in instructional effectiveness. White and female teachers receive, on average, 0.15 standard deviations (SD) and 0.30 SD higher observation ratings than their Black and male colleagues. Gaps persist even conditional on other measures of teachers' effectiveness, such as value‐added to student test scores or student attendance, consistent with potential bias. The Black–White gap is largest in schools where Black teachers are racially isolated and is partly explained by Black teachers' propensity to be assigned less advantaged students within their schools. Teachers receive somewhat higher ratings from raters of the same race. We find no same‐gender rater effects and, beyond score differences associated with grade and subject taught, uncover few explanations for the large advantage women see in observation ratings. Our results suggest the need for steps to address bias in evaluation processes to ensure the accuracy of evaluation feedback and fair, equitable treatment of teachers in evaluation and staffing actions that rely on it.

Students of color are underrepresented in gifted programs relative to White students, but the reasons for this underrepresentation are poorly understood. We investigate the predictors of gifted assignment using nationally representative, longitudinal data on elementary students. We document that even among students with high standardized test scores, Black students are less likely to be assigned to gifted services in both math and reading, a pattern that persists when controlling for other background factors, such as health and socioeconomic status, and characteristics of classrooms and schools. We then investigate the role of teacher discretion, leveraging research from political science suggesting that clients of government services from traditionally underrepresented groups benefit from diversity in the providers of those services, including teachers. Even after conditioning on test scores and other factors, Black students indeed are referred to gifted programs, particularly in reading, at significantly lower rates when taught by non-Black teachers, a concerning result given the relatively low incidence of assignment to own-race teachers among Black students. ; American Educational Research Association

AbstractTheories of political accountability assume citizens use information about the performance of government to hold public officials accountable, but whether citizens actually use information is difficult to directly examine. We take advantage of the importance of citizen-driven, performance-based accountability for education policy in Tennessee to conduct a survey experiment that identifies the effect of new information, mistaken beliefs and differing considerations on the evaluation of public officials and policy reforms using 1,500 Tennesseans. Despite an emphasis on reporting outcomes for school accountability policies in the state, mistaken beliefs are prevalent and produce overly optimistic assessments of the institutions responsible for statewide education policy. Moreover, individuals update their assessments of these institutions in an unbiased way when provided with objective performance data about overall student performance. Providing additional information about race-related performance differences does not alter this relationship, however. Finally, support for specific policies that are intended to improve student performance is unchanged by either type of performance information; opinions about policy reforms are instead most related to race and existing partisan commitments.

Although research on professionalism in state legislatures has been substantial, professionalism research has ignored legislative bodies in local government, such as city councils and school boards. Using detailed school district-level data and an original survey of school board members in 210 school districts in California, we develop measures of professionalism in the local government context. We then use these measures to examine which characteristics of school districts are associated with greater professionalization. Consistent with findings in the state politics literature, we find that districts with greater resources and more heterogeneous environments exhibit higher degrees of professionalism than other districts. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright holder.]

Although research on professionalism in state legislatures has been substantial, professionalism research has ignored legislative bodies in local government, such as city councils and school boards. Using detailed school district-level data and an original survey of school board members in 210 school districts in California, we develop measures of professionalism in the local government context. We then use these measures to examine which characteristics of school districts are associated with greater professionalization. Consistent with findings in the state politics literature, we find that districts with greater resources and more heterogeneous environments exhibit higher degrees of professionalism than other districts.