By Anne L. Bryant
9/28/04 -- Back when I was a student, as soon as Labor Day was over, it was time to head back to school. There was the first cool breeze of early fall, and the school buses began rolling through my neighborhood.
Nowadays, many schools start in mid-August -- or even earlier in communities with year-round schools.
Still, whenever school starts, the beginning of a school year brings newly painted buildings, new clothes, new teachers, and new principals. In New York City alone, it was mind-boggling to learn that 300 new principals and 5,500 new teachers have been hired.
A pleasant part of the beginning of a school year is the positive news reports from around the country featuring warm, human interest, get-ready-for-school stories -- stories featuring real people doing great work.
For example, a first-day story in the Washington Post described the high hopes of a new principal hired to turn around a troubled elementary school in Alexandria, Va.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the opening of eight new schools, including a new magnet school connected to the Orthopaedic Hospital next door. The Pioneer Press reported on how the St. Paul, Minn., schools are making extra efforts to welcome a new wave of Hmong refugees.
And stories from Charleston, S.C., told how hundreds of students and their parents packed a downtown park for an annual festival that celebrates education. That event is part of First Day of School America, a grassroots movement aimed at encouraging parents to come to school on the first day with their children and stay involved all year.
I love these stories. But how many of them spoke of, or even remotely mentioned school boards? Of the many stories I read, only one addressed the role of local school board members.
That story, in the San Francisco Chronicle, was about San Francisco Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's plan to transform three low-performing schools into academic powerhouses she calls "Dream Schools." At a press conference on the new schools, Ackerman thanked three school board members for helping to make the initiative possible.
So why do school board members get such little recognition in the press? Well, you pick the answer: (1) the press has no idea about the role school boards play; (2) the press does not care about the role school boards play; (3) the role that school boards play in the advancement of student learning is not apparent to the public; (4) school boards do not "appear" to lead academic achievement; (5) school boards do not discuss student achievement at their meetings; or (6) all of the above.
If you guessed no. 6, I think you're probably correct.
Let's look at why this is the case. We, as school board representatives, sometimes do not do a good enough job promoting our role.
Of course, board members have to promote themselves at election time. But that's not the only time to help community members understand the critical role of school boards -- that is something that must be done all year long.
That is why NSBA's strategic vision calls for NSBA and our state associations to help school boards lead their communities in discussions about what it means to create excellent schools.
NSBA has developed a model program called "What Counts" that state associations and local school boards can use to host "kitchen-table conversations" with local citizens, business leaders, parents, and community organizations around what really matters in public education -- what counts for creating schools of excellence.
The Maryland Association of Boards of Education is in its second year of bringing these conversations to communities across the state. It has issued reports on what the participants have learned and given them back to those communities. It's been a powerful tool.
Other state associations, including those in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, and Connecticut, are doing similar outreach.
At NSBA's Annual Conference, we announced the formation of the Center for Public Education, a web-based -- for now -- resource for school board members and the public providing balanced, succinct information about public education.
The front page of the center's site will feature one or more success stories about what schools are doing to raise student achievement. This front page will change as we unveil new stories about programs that work -- stories about schools and school districts that are providing a rich education for their students all year long.
As school board members and state school boards associations tell our stories in articulate ways, the public will get a more balanced view of what is really going on in our schools all year -- not just on Sept. 8.
Our successes are many. Our challenges are huge. But school board leaders are examining every day how to raise student achievement. You are the unsung heroes and heroines of the school board movement.