Research Spotlight: James Bridgeforth

Though its role can be misunderstood, school boards traditionally help ensure accountability, effective operations and reporting across the district through policymaking. For example, a school board often establishes fiscal policies and oversees hiring, the work of the superintendent and the integration of curricular initiatives. Perhaps most importantly, school boards — composed of elected or appointed officials from the community — are often charged with seeking regular input from parents, teachers and community residents on their policies.

But encouraging meaningful dialogue and responding to community concerns can be a tall order, especially when a school board is faced with a politically charged issue. That’s where Bridgeforth hopes to help.

“Board members are often minimally paid elected officials who lack specific training on how to manage community conflict, navigate social media engagement or evaluate complicated national political issues,” Bridgeforth said. “My work has helped to document the experiences of board members serving in this political environment and how we might support their ability to make policies and decisions that are in the best interests of all students and families.”

For example, in a new study published in AERA Open, Bridgeforth and CEHD doctoral candidate Amanda Pickett document how a school board in the Western United States came to adopt a new policy banning teachers, students and staff from displaying Black Lives Matter posters and LGBTQ+ pride flags in their schools. Through interviews with school board members and analyses of meeting minutes, website content and video recordings of public forums, Bridgeforth and Pickett found that the school board’s commitment to norms of order, balance and neutrality ultimately impeded its ability to meaningfully engage with the community.

For example, in a virtual public forum designed to solicit community comments on the proposed ban, the board chair carefully moderated who was given the opportunity to speak. While his actions ensured that an equal number of people spoke in favor and against the ban, the discussion failed to reflect the position of the community as a whole — far more community members opposed such a ban than supported it, but the policy went forward.

“Although the board at the center of this case chose to go against the community’s wishes, the findings from this study allow us to better recognize the tradeoffs of school boards strictly adhering to longstanding, often racialized norms,” Bridgeforth said. “This work allows us to pinpoint the key policies, procedures and structures for community engagement that may need to change if boards aim to live up to their potential as inclusive spaces of dialogue and deliberation.”

Given the findings of their study, Bridgeforth and Pickett offer many recommendations for school boards and government leaders, especially in relation to state laws governing access to public meetings.

“Based on the lessons learned from this study, we suggest that state-level governments play a more significant role in establishing guidelines for more meaningful opportunities for public involvement in local school board meetings,” Bridgeforth said. “This might involve setting more stringent standards for who must be offered opportunities to speak at board meetings, making space for populations that have historically been marginalized within the given community.”

Delaware is already moving in this direction. State laws regarding public meetings already require school board meetings to be open to the public. In addition, Delaware recently passed new laws aimed at expanding community input on board decisions. School boards are now required to offer remote public comment opportunities and board members must undergo training on Delaware’s ethics rules and public meeting laws.

This move toward more participatory governance is strongly supported by Bridgeforth and by CEHD’s School Success Center, which fosters collaborative cultures in schools and districts. Bridgeforth notes that such work is especially important during Black History Month.

“I have always been interested in how public policies are made and who gets to be involved in making them,” Bridgeforth said. “As I’ve studied policymaking processes at the local, state and national levels, I have noticed that policymakers are not always responsive to the communities that they serve. This is particularly true for communities of color and other marginalized groups. I do this work because I believe that public policies should be inclusive and representative, and one way to make that happen is to develop a more participatory approach to governing and decision-making.”

To learn more about CEHD research in education leadership and administration, visit its research webpage. To learn more about CEHD support for school leadership, visit the School Success Center’s website.

Article by Jessica Henderson. Photo by iStock.

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