President Obama’s “Race to the Top” grant program, which encourages school districts to compete for $4.35 billion, has made a strong push for education reform. While much of the education reform debate has focused on issues of adequate funding and teacher qualifications, few have addressed the role of citizen involvement in local education policy making.
An MU researcher has examined the link between school board elections and local school performance and found a correlation between increased voter turnout for school board elections and state assessment scores.
“Education researchers know that parental involvement makes a difference, but few political scientists have asked: Does voting make a difference?” says David Webber, associate professor of political science. “Because voter turnout and candidate competition in school district elections reflect a district’s social capital, these characteristics of school board elections should affect how schools perform and be valued as a means for improving school performance.”
However, few candidates and equally few voters tend to get involved in school board elections, Webber says. To encourage citizen involvement, school districts should host forums to discuss important issues and send newsletters to keep citizens informed of school progress.
Webber found that a 1 percent increase in school board election voter turnout correlated to increased state assessment scores by more than one point. Unexpectedly, he found that candidate competition and graduation rates have a negative correlation, suggesting that school districts with lower graduation rates attract more candidates than do school districts with higher graduation rates.
“While concern for and involvement in schools may motivate some citizens to vote in school board elections, the same level of community involvement seldom motivates citizens to become candidates,” Webber says.