Iowa Lighthouse project expands to seven states
After showing that school boards can have a major impact on student learning, the Iowa Association of School Boards’ (IASB) Lighthouse project is carrying out research to identify best practices boards across the nation can adopt to raise student achievement.
Mary L. Delagardelle and Hilary LaMonte of IASB and the Iowa Association of School Boards, gave an update on the project at a Sunday workshop.
The original Lighthouse study, which looked at school boards in southern Iowa, started in 1998. Researchers found board members in higher-achieving districts had more confidence in students’ potential and in the district staff’s capacity to make academic gains.
The high-achieving districts also were more likely to have what Delagardelle referred to as “seven conditions for productive change.” These include connections across the system around the improvement work, a shared understanding of what it takes to change achievement, workplace support, professional development, a balance between districtwide direction and building-level autonomy, a strong community connection, and distributed leadership.
The second phase of the Lighthouse project concluded last June. Researchers worked with the boards and superintendents in five pilot school districts over five years to identify actions the board/superintendent team can take to create a climate that supports raising student achievement. These include creating a sense of urgency, developing a districtwide focus for improvement, monitoring progress, and developing a leadership continuum.
The third phase of the research, already under way, involves seven state school boards associations and districts in a five-year study to clearly define best practices on a larger scale. The participating states are California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
State school boards association staff will replicate the key Lighthouse interventions in districts across their states with training, support, and monitoring by the Lighthouse research team. Other states will study different interventions but collect the same data each year to measure impact.
This will allow for an ongoing analysis of the implementation of various interventions to identify best practices in board leadership and development.
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