School board governance is an important issue in the advancement of 21st century learning. As the evidence mounts on the critical role that boards play in impacting student achievement, School boards must see their knowledge and beliefs transformed to empower families to own their student’s educational journey. This notion carries through among administrators and teachers and the districts. According to results of a research study released by the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB), school boards in districts with high student achievement:

  • Consistently expressed the belief that all students can learn and that the school could teach all students.
This "no excuses" belief system resulted in high standards for students and an on‐going dedication to improvement. In low‐achieving districts, board members had limited expectations and often focused on factors that they believed kept students from learning, such as poverty, lack of parental support or societal factors. The oncoming conversion to common core will inevitably bring the stress of change to your schools and district. Its more important than ever that standards and expectations remain high. Incredible work follows incredible expectations.

   • Were far more knowledgeable about teaching and learning issues, including school improvement goals, curriculum, instruction, assessment and staff development.
They were able to clearly describe the purposes and processes of school improvement efforts and identify the board's role in supporting those efforts. They could give specific examples of how district goals were being carried out by administrators and teachers.

   • Used data and other information on student needs and results to make decisions.
The high achieving boards regularly monitored progress on improvement efforts and modified direction as a result.

   • Created a supportive workplace for staff.
Boards in high‐achieving districts supported regular staff development to help teachers be more effective, supported shared leadership and decision making among staff, and  regularly expressed appreciation for staff members. It must be understood that 21st century learning can happen anywhere; and teachers must understand both the mechanics as well as the context of digital learning to be effective. Boards must be creative in helping staff ‘learn while teaching’.

   • Involved their communities.
Board members identified how they connect with and listen to their communities and focused on involving parents in education. Effective school board governance of the 21st century is a fluid process whereby boards make the important educational decisions for their local community; continually determine and seek out those local, state and national stakeholders critical to ensuring successful outcomes for students; and operate with transparency as they hold themselves accountable to their communities. Twenty‐first century governance must see the community as a resource, this include parents, business and community groups all at the table with a role in addressing educational and societal needs of students.

Strong, collaborative leadership by the governance team is a key cornerstone of the foundation for high student achievement. That leadership is essential to forming a community vision for children, crafting long range goals and plans for raising the achievement of every child, improving the professional development and status of teachers and other staff, and ensuring that the guidance, support, and resources needed for success are available. The governance team of the 21st century must work cooperatively and collaboratively to mobilize their communities to aid in directing the educational services of today’s students with future ready skills for optimal success and productivity to face the challenges of tomorrow.

The Common Core offers schools and districts the opportunity to collaborate together on solutions that benefit the greater good of all districts. Districts soon will be asked to support programs, unheard of only a few years ago. At the same time, they must show the impact of these efforts to improve education.

In our conversations with districts, this realization is just becoming clear. We believe, in the near future, this dichotomy will force districts to work across boundaries to serve constituencies of similar needs, be they access to technology or academics support.

Looking at what makes local education donors successful in other parts of the country offers clues to folks here in the Bay Area seeking to increase the impact of their giving, in areas they care about most. Among the important lessons: Donors need to hold themselves accountable for not only success but for monitoring and measuring impact of growth and be willing to make tough choices.

Consider what is happening in Charlotte, N.C., the nation's 18th-largest school system. Collaboration among donors illustrates the key elements of what it takes for donors to increase student achievement:

Working hand in hand with the school district on strategies to ensure that every student graduates ready for college and career. Donors need to ensure that they are working with a strong capable district leadership team and that the district has a credible, long-term strategy focused on effective teaching in every classroom and the right support for every student.

While the ultimate goal of Project L.I.F.T. is to boost student achievement in the entire district, it has focused its five-year $55-million philanthropic investment on nine historically low-performing schools in West Charlotte—a high school and the eight elementary and middle schools that feed into it. LIFT is pursuing change in four key areas we ourselves recommend: teacher and principal quality; extending student learning time in school, after school, and during the summer; technology; and community engagement.

Denise Watts, the Project L.I.F.T. superintendent in charge of the nine West Charlotte schools, serves as a bridge between the schools and the donors by reporting directly to both, thus ensuring a strong link between what is happening in the Project L.I.F.T. schools and what is happening in the whole district.

Investing together over multiple years to advance shared strategies. The Charlotte donors are not simply trying to raise the largest possible pool of money but rather to direct the largest possible pool toward a credible long-term strategy for transformation of all districts. Each donor has committed donations for at least four years. The donors describe a need to continuously adapt and evolve their approach, and to respond to the challenges and setbacks that inevitably arise.

The governing board meets monthly with the Superintendent, Heath Morrison, Deputy Superintendent Clark, and Project L.I.F.T. staff members. The board monitors progress and tackles implementation. For example, it handled the politically difficult choice of which group of Charlotte schools would get the initial investment, and it decided to end support for one of two summer-program providers when students in the program failed to show the same gains as those served by the other provider.

Long-term strategies also highlight the need for donors to measure their progress and impact. Says Brian Collier of the Foundation for the Carolinas: "We'd had opportunities to work together through much smaller pooled funds and were starting to understand that we always hold nonprofits accountable. But until now, we have rarely had the conversation about holding ourselves accountable."

Engaging the community is key to shaping and sustaining the work. All too often, school-improvement efforts trigger years of tension—political, economic, and racial. Effective donors get everybody in a community involved, and that is where local donors may have a real edge over national ones. This means pursuing a dialogue among the district, philanthropists, government agencies, neighborhood associations, parents, and students to create a shared understanding of what it takes to achieve real results

Calculus Roundtable has established a structured process for gathering voices from the key stakeholders and funding community around areas of digital learning, using technology leverage remote learning and motivating math and science rigor. We've designed a team charter for meeting with hundreds of parents, teachers and other residents through focus groups and town halls in churches, schools, and other community gathering places.

The voices of local residents can help shape a regional approach to change. We must see the community as a resource. However, this can only be done with a greater understanding of families needs. In our internal survey of parents from our first 2 cohorts, we found that "Parents still have concerns about the digital divide, access to technology and 'online curriculum support'."

One to one interviews with parents and key stakeholders during our DORS online extended learning pilot program prompts us to recommend a stronger approach to defining extended learning time, which was at first perceived by some parents as nothing more than a longer school day. Relabeling extended learning as an investment in "continuous learning" and apart of the school's learning objective emphasizes the combined contribution of in-school and out-of-school learning.

                      "Schools must look beyond the scarcity of resources and
                              toward the abundance of an entire community."

As we review Charlotte's progress to date the results are encouraging. In four of its nine West Charlotte schools, Project L.I.F.T. has been able to increase the hours students spend in school and in summer learning programs. Some of it's more controversial efforts sought to improve performance by repositioning a large number of teachers and principals.

One school in particular, West Charlotte High School has achieved a 15-point increase in the graduation rate, compared with a system-wide 5 percent increase.

There have been real challenges in Charlotte as well, including staff turnover and difficulties in securing the number of high-quality out-of-school-time slots needed to implement the continuous-learning calendar.

Charlotte has a ways to go to reach its ultimate goal. But in the face of one of America's most daunting challenges—making sure all public-school students are ready for college and career—we believe that the structure, scale, and energy of donor partnerships like Charlotte's demonstrate what it takes to transform student outcomes.

A year ago we had an idea. We set out to change the odds for all our kids. Today, Calculus Roundtable is helping schools raise expectations and performance. We work with teachers and district leaders in schools from California to Alabama. The Calculus Roundtable is making great strides in preparing students of color with the skills needed in the new economy like problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering and math.

Last month, from the White House East Room, President Obama announced the launch of My Brother’s Keeper, “a new initiative with leading foundations and businesses taking a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to building ladders of opportunity that will unlock the full potential of boys and young men of color in America.” With this announcement, the President is making a significant statement and giving us validation on our collective work to improve the life outcomes of black men and boys.

I and Calculus Roundtable are honored to be a part of the President's initiative through work with our flagship program, The Digital One Room Schoolhouse (DORS).

DORS will help retrofit America's most challenging schools with from more challenging curriculums, better progress reporting for parents, added content support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test.

Thank you to all our supporters and partners for your tireless advocacy, teaching, research, and leadership has made it possible for us to make lives better for children and their families. Your support and interest has contributed to us being able to play a small part in the future of public education.

Thanks again for your support!