Do boards matter? Studying the relation between school boards and educational quality

Marlies Honingh*, Marieke van Genugten, Sandra van Thiel, Rutger Blom

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Boards are expected to contribute to an organization's performance. In the case of schools, this means that the board should contribute to educational quality. However, there is no scientific proof that this expectation is valid. The (growing) literature on boards suggests that the effects of school boards depend on variables, such as board behaviour and corporate governance. In this study, we present the results of a secondary analysis drawing on representative existing datasets on Dutch secondary schools. This is unique as previous research usually dealt with non-representative cases or samples. Our merged dataset includes measurements of board characteristics, board behaviour and pupils' achievements. Through Structural Equation Modelling, we show that there is ample evidence that board characteristics and board behaviour affect pupils' achievements. The only variable affecting pupil's achievements is counter vailing power perceived by the executives in the school board. The model also hints at more complex patterns of interacting variables at the board level. To get more insight into how these variables interact, a different research approach is necessary, such as case studies on board behaviour, and on the effects thereof within the school.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)65–83
Number of pages19
JournalPublic Policy and Administration
Volume35
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Corporate governance
  • educational quality
  • school board
  • structural equation modelling

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Do boards matter? Studying the relation between school boards and educational quality'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this