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Visiting a Public School Board Meeting:
Study Questions
As a class, we will be visiting a meeting of the local school board. As you observe the interaction during the meeting, keep the following questions in mind. They will help you focus your attention on the structural and organizational issues of schooling.
1) Describe the members of the school board in terms of social characteristics (i.e., race, SES, age, etc.) as best you can. Does the make-up of the board indicate anything to you about the distribution of power? How?
2) Take note of the social characteristics of the people who came to observe the meeting. Do there appear to be any patterns? If so, what do these patterns seem to indicate about power and community involvement? Why are the people there?
3) What are the key issues under debate? Is the meeting dominated by routine matters or significant concerns? Who are the key players? Who appears to have power?
4) What evidence, if any, illustrates Max Weber’s characteristics of bureaucracy? How? Does the bureaucracy appear to be functional or dysfunctional or both? Why?
5) Define the role of the school board in the governance of the public schools as you see it demonstrated. Does it appear to be effective? How or how not? The National School Boards Association has compiled a list of formal school board duties: hiring superintendents, principals, and teachers; determining salaries and contracts; providing transportation for students; determining size of school budgets, deciding the length of the school year; building new schools and facilities; changing school attendance boundaries; selecting textbooks and subjects; and maintaining school discipline. Does this list seem to apply to the meeting? Explain. Were issues discussed that do not appear on the list?
6) What factors appear to be affecting board decisions?
7) In decision making, do the best interests of students seem to be taken into account? The interests of teachers? Administrators? Parents? Examples?
8) Can you find any evidence of the interdependence among institutions in the school system’s environment? Is this an open system? Explain.
9) Who controls the schools? Defend your answer.
10) On the basis of your observations, what suggestions could you make to the administrators of the public school system in order to improve the system’s operations?