Defining and Defending State Board Authority

State boards should not wait for a crisis to define and defend their role. Instead, board members should act early and often to articulate the board’s vital role in achieving excellence and equity for all students. A savvy board develops and executes a strategy to keep the constantly changing landscape of education constituents informed of the board’s work, its goals, and its progress toward those goals. Both new and veteran members should be able to explain that the state board is integral to citizen governance of public educa­tion and brings intrinsic value to policymaking.