Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 150
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9
978-1-4758-4619-5 • Hardback • February 2019 • $87.00 • (£67.00)
978-1-4758-4620-1 • Paperback • February 2019 • $35.00 • (£30.00)
978-1-4758-4621-8 • eBook • February 2019 • $33.00 • (£25.00)
Dr. Randy Quinn served for 30 yearsas executive director of two state school boards associations, in Alabama for 19 years and in Colorado for 11 years.He has written more than 400 articles for publication in various journals,and has served on the boards of directors of numerous state and national organizations. He too benefited from the high visibility of the Colorado board training programs, and co-founded AGI: Aspen Group International LLC in 1993 to extend his work throughout the United States and internationally.
Linda J. Dawson has more than 35 years of experience as a skilled author, consultant, coach and facilitator with a career in teaching and administration, agency public relations, and association leadership. As an executive with the Colorado Association of School Boards, she developed widely regarded governance training programs recognized at the national and international levels. The ensuing demand for her services led to her decision to co-found AGI: Aspen Group International LLC in 1993.
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: Why Don’t Boards Perform Better?
Chapter 2: What Does a High Performing Board Look Like?
Chapter 3: Governing Coherently, or Incoherently?
Chapter 4: Defining the Board’s Own Governing Culture
Chapter 5: The Board’s Relationship With its CEO--Part 1
Chapter 6: Controlling Operational Decisions Without Helping the CEO Manage
Chapter 7: Becoming a Results Driven Organization
Chapter 8: The Board’s Relationship With its CEO—Part 2
Chapter 9: Monitoring—Everything!
Chapter 10: Systemic Application and Alignment
Chapter 11: The Process and The Reasons for Adopting Coherent Governance
Chapter 12: Governing Coherently: How Can a Board Transform Itself?
Glossary
About the Authors
Again, Randy and Linda get it exactly right. I have long believed that governance is the key to school improvement. Period. Not lack of funding, teacher unions, government regulations, lack of technology, poor administrative leadership—governance! Good, coherent, governance can overcome these and other obstacles preventing America’s children from getting the education they deserve and the nation so desperately needs. Too many board members focus on adult versus student issues in an attempt to curry the favor needed to run for a higher political office. And, too many superintendents are just trying to get from one side of the road to the other without getting run over. An old Southern minister once told me that ‘some folks would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.’ Randy and Linda have developed a clear, coherent, roadmap for those who really want to change their ‘sinful’ ways!
— Terry Grier, EdD, retired superintendent, Houston Independent School District; Houston, Texas
Coherence Governance has fundamentally changed how our board and administration operate and work together. We are more efficient, transparent and focused on students as a result.
— Paru Shah, president, Shorewood School District Board of Education, WI
Quinn and Dawson’s Coherent Governance model not only provides an efficient mechanism to achieve role clarification between board members and CEOs, it also empowers boards and executives to work strategically and collaboratively. By making the choice to embrace Coherent Governance, we strengthened our organization by focusing on, and subsequently achieving, the results that mattered most to our members.
— Doug Booher, CVE, past chair, International Association of Venue Managers
Linda Dawson and Randy Quinn have their act together. Their straightforward combination of theory and practical application of Coherent Governance has helped our district, in the second year of implementation, to experience clear board/superintendent roles and responsibilities, accountability, and alignment of student achievement goals.
— Todd Yuzuriha, president, Board of Directors, Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver, WA