Does school board turnover matter? Revisiting critical variables in the Dissatisfaction Theory of American democracy

Abstract

The frequent turnover of school board members in the US represents a concern for many educational practitioners who worry about the discontinuity of leadership, leading to negative impacts on students and staff. School board member turnover is also a key variable in studies of democratic theories of public school governance. Using descriptive and comparative quantitative methods, through a survey of 176 school superintendents in Washington State, USA, data were collected on why school board members retire and resign. The purpose of the study was to rank the reasons given for school board turnover, delineate between political and apolitical turnover, and compare turnover results by district size and rate of superintendent turnover. Results indicated that in 807 school board turnovers from 1993–2000, 73% were apolitical turnover, with politically‐motivated turnover and defeat increasing with district enrollment. Generally, superintendent turnover increased as politically‐motivated school board turnover increased and districts grew in enrollment. However, superintendent turnover was highest in schools of 0–500 enrollment, despite the lowest rate of politically‐motivated school board turnover, and lowest in schools of 5000–9999 enrollment with nearly the highest rate of politically‐motivated school board turnover and defeat. The study concluded that unique contextual factors have a major impact on results in school governance studies and are difficult to measure with traditional quantitative methods and analysis.