Most charter school boards think they're pretty good. But they have no standard for comparison.
When asked about their effectiveness, board members and CEOs often say, “We show up. We have meetings. We get work done. But I guess things could be better.”
Using the Path to Excellence, BoardOnTrack's own capability maturity model for charter school governance, your board has a defined standard. Instead of guessing, you can measure your board's improvement. The path towards excellence is laid out simply before you.
Furthermore, with measurement and a plan, you can identify areas for improvement and begin to set goals.
The key to understanding your board’s strengths and areas to improve are two-fold:
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Complete an assessment.
First, the full board and the CEO should complete a comprehensive annual assessment.
BoardOnTrack membership has a built in annual assessment process. There are 11 quick online assessments that take a few minutes each to complete.
These range from the effectiveness of board meetings to the board’s role in financial and academic oversight, to the board’s partnership with its CEO.
BoardOnTrack calculates the results for you and presents a clear picture of the board’s strengths and areas to improve and the results are benchmarked against our national data set.
And, you can always reach out to the experts at BoardOnTrack to get help in further interpreting the data and creating a board improvement action plan.
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Know where you are in your evolution.
Building a great sustainable board should be an ongoing process. If you have mastered Level 1 work, pat yourselves on the back, and take a look at what Level 2 work involves. Set actionable goals for the year and take your governance to the next level.
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