Evaluating the Texas Institute for School Boards

School boards participating in the Texas Institute for School Boards and Texas Fellows Alumni Program find value in the training, according to a recent evaluation of the programs’ effectiveness.  Among the positive changes in behavior attributed to the Texas Institute are improvements in governance and reform leadership. 

The Center for Reform of School Systems (CRSS) and the Houston Endowment are pleased to release the independent evaluation, which tracked the quality of the Texas Institute for School Boards and its alumni program over three years.  The evaluation was conducted by Denise Quigley of Evaluation & Research Services  based in California.  The Houston Endowment, a longtime major funder of CRSS’s work in Texas, contracted directly with ERS for the evaluation. 

The evaluation was conducted in two phases.  The first was  Reform Governance: How has it influenced Texas school board members and their school boards?.  In that phase, Dr. Quigley set out to determine how participating in the Texas Institute for School Boards and alumni program has influenced the beliefs and actions of board members.  She chose for her research methodology a comparison group design based on self-reported survey data.  An Executive Summary is available.

The second phase was Teaching School Boards about Leadership and Strategic Policymaking: The Texas Institute Training and Lessons in Reform Governance.  Dr. Quigley chose a comparative case-study approach to qualitatively isolate general factors associated with effective and non-effective reform governance and participation in the Texas Institute.  An Executive Summary is available.

Finally, a Summary Report that brings together both executive summaries is available.  This document provides a comprehensive overview of the major issues, research methodology, findings, and recommendations.  Non-researchers may find this to be the most useful document.
 

CRSS encourages philanthropic foundations and corporations, school board members, superintendents, researchers, and all interested in school district governance and improved school district performance to read these independent evaluations.  They confirm the value of the work.

“We found that both working and non-working board members and superintendents did attribute (partially and fully) entire board behavior changes to the Texas Institute training,” Dr. Quigley said.  “The boards attributed to the Texas Institute training their decreased levels of micromanagement, increased board unity and teamwork, improved operating procedures, use of a common language around governance, and more of a focus on achievement and learning.”