Five Districts Selected to Participate in Reform Governance® Training

Five Texas school district leadership teams are participating in the Center for Reform of School Systems’ second RGA for Mid-Urban Texas School Districts program.

The training, called Reform Governance^® in Action, is fully funded by the Robert & Ruby Priddy Charitable Trust.

This year, school leadership teams from College Station, Little Elm, Marshall, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls independent school districts are taking part in the professional development program.

Leadership teams from the first group—Abilene, Nacogdoches, Tyler, Waco, and Weatherford independent school districts—are now completing their training, which began in early 2009. 

The training, which includes three institutes and five onsite workshops, is built on the Reform Governance^® model developed by former Houston school board member Don McAdams, as described in his book, What School Boards Can Do:  Reform Governance for Urban Schools.

“We have selected these districts because they have great potential,” said McAdams, CRSS’ president and CEO.  “We believe that as a result of this training, the district governance teams will have a clear understanding of reform policies that contribute to significant improvement in student achievement for all children.”

RGA program specifically trains school board-superintendent teams to establish a wide range of efficient and effective policies and processes that will improve board operations, strengthen management oversight, and directly improve learning opportunities for students.

Over the course of the training, participants dig deeply into the real challenges facing school district governance teams struggling to improve student achievement, district operations, and civic engagement.

The goal of the program is to dramatically improve student achievement and eliminate achievement gaps by guiding and assisting boards and the superintendents to become more effective reform leaders.