School Board Governance in a Polarized Era

At-a-Glance

Date: April 8
Time: 1:00-2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)
Format: Live, online 90 minute webinar with interactive lecture and Q&A
Intended Audience: Current and newly elected public school board members (including board chairs and committee leaders)
Faculty: 

• Martin West, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education
• Scott Levy, Author of Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy

Overview

School boards carry the formal responsibility for governing our public school systems. Yet the learning curve to become an effective board member is steep, and today’s polarized environment makes the work even more challenging.

Board members are expected to understand governance, finance, policy, and curriculum, while also exercising leadership in collaboration, conflict management, and community engagement. They must navigate complex political dynamics, high‑stakes decisions, and intense public scrutiny — often in full public view at board meetings and online.

To govern well in this context, school board members need:

• A clear, practical understanding of the board’s proper role
• Productive working relationships with the superintendent and fellow board members
• Concrete tools for aligning the board’s work with student‑centered outcomes

Participants will explore how to:

• Clarify the board’s role in relation to the superintendent and central office, and avoid common overreach or micromanagement
• Lead through political polarization, conflict, and crisis moments during board meetings and in the wider community
• Keep the board’s work anchored in student outcomes, data, and responsible oversight, rather than day‑to‑day operations or partisan debates

Using real‑world examples and interactive discussion, the session provides a high‑impact primer on what effective governance looks like — and concrete steps board members can apply immediately in their own districts.

Faculty 
 

Scott Levy

Scott Levy is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has been elected four times to a local public school board in Westchester County, NY. He has served as president of a regional school boards association, chairman of a children's hospital, and Executive Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He spent two decades as an investment banker advising corporate boards and senior executives. 

His recent book Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy (MIT Press, 2025), explores the critical role of school boards in sustaining both effective public education and a healthy democracy. 

Martin West

Martin West is the academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also editor-in-chief of Education Next, a journal of research and opinion on education policy, and deputy director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. West is currently a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and of the National Assessment Governing Board. His research focuses on the politics of K-12 education in the United States and how education policies affect student learning and non-cognitive development. In 2013-14, West worked as senior education policy advisor to the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He previously taught at Brown University and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is now a nonresident senior fellow.