Survey will inform CSBA training programs
Published: April 26, 2011
The school district board member training survey that CSBA is conducting this month is crucial to a brass-tacks assessment of the association’s training options, from the occasional webinars covering topical issues to the two-year Masters in Governance program.
“The training CSBA develops is specifically for our members; we need to know what they think they need,” CSBA Governance Research and Development Director Christopher Maricle said Monday. “A few hundred more responses would help substantially, but what we really want is a few thousand before the April 29 deadline.”
“Right now we’re focusing on school district board members,” Maricle added. “District superintendents will be surveyed soon. Surveys of county office of education board members and superintendents will follow later this spring, because they have fundamentally different roles and responsibilities. We want to support all of them—but we need a solid base of information about where their needs and interests lie.”
The 35-question survey should take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. It covers specific skills and information that school district board members regard as necessary in the first six months of their board service and beyond, on topics such as district finances, human resources, and student achievement; a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions help respondents express their needs, interests and priorities.
Other sections of the survey address how board members prefer to access information, including in-person and online options and such practical considerations as how far they’re willing to travel for training. High-speed Internet access, desirable session lengths, and other topics are all covered in the carefully crafted questions, along with incentives that could boost participation, from training certificates to the facilitation of peer networks and beyond.
A link to the survey was emailed to district board members. Any questions can be emailed to CSBA Research Analyst Leslie O'Neill.
Data-based decision making
The survey is an early step in a comprehensive review of CSBA’s training programs that’s now under way, according to Holly Jacobson, the association’s assistant executive director for policy analysis and leadership development.
“This review is to embrace the principles of data-based decision making. It will encompass all leadership development offerings, including Masters in Governance, the Institute for New and First Term Board Members, Orientation for New Trustees, Brown Act Workshops, Board President’s Workshops and Board Evaluation/Superintendent Evaluation Workshops,” Jacobson said. The results will also factor into other CSBA presentations, such as the Back-to-School Webcast every fall and the Forecast Webcast each January.