**2009 Notable Education Book, American School Board Journal
The Essential School Board Book highlights effective practices that are common to high-functioning boards around the countryboards that are working successfully with their superintendents and communities to improve teaching and learning.**
Amid today's heightened attention on student achievement, school boards find their responsibilities intensified and transformed. In this age of accountability, all school boards need to consider how best to maintain a focus on student achievement and promote it through district and school policies.
In a highly readable and accessible fashion, the book summarizes research linking school board practices to student achievement. It features stories of sixteen diverse boards around the countryelected and appointed; rural, urban, and suburbanand the policies and procedures they have employed to enhance student achievement. Also included is a resource section for those investigating successful school board policies and practices in more depth.