A Guide to School Board Policy: the American Sponsored Overseas School

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 126 597 El 008 539 AUTHOR Orr, Paul Glen TITLE A Guide to School Board Policy: The American Sponsored Overseas School. INSTITUTION Massachusetts State Coll. System, Buzzards Bay. Center for International Education. SPONS AGENCY Department of State, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 76 GRANT 2058499815 NOTE 368p.; For a related document, see ED117210 EDRS PRICE MF-S0.83 HC-319.41 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Administrative Personnel; *Administrator Guides; *Board of Education Policy; Collective Bargaining; Educational Finance; Elementary Secondary Education; *Financial Policy; Fringe Benefits; *Instructional Programs; Overseas Employment; *Personnel Policy; *Policy Formation; Salaries; School Buildings; School Organization; Students; Teachers; Teacher Salaries IDENTIFIERS *American Sponsored Overseas Schools ABSTRACT This book should be of specific interest to American sponsored overseas schools (ASOS) superintendents and board members, bit it is also useful for others who are interested inor responsible for school policy. This group includes parents, students, school committees and groups, teae,ers, and other school personnel. Thebook does not attempt to decide what a school's policies should be. It does provide a comprehensive guide that should be helpful toa school as it develops and revises policies for its own direction. The guide includes the major issues involved in policy matters, the categories of school policy that should be considered, anda few examples that are most pertinent to the ASOS. The guide also treats rules for the implementation of policy and examples of information documentsthat should be available. The book contains sectionson school board operation, general school administration, fiscal management, business management, personnel, negotiations, instructional programs, students, interorganizational relations, boarding facilities, and fund raising.(Author/IRT) *********************************************************************** * Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makesevery effort* * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * *reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * *of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * *via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS isnot * *responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions* *supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. * *********************************************************************** U 5 OEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EOUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATiNG IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRE r SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION POSITION OR POLICY a guide to SCHOOL BOARD POLICY the\ AMERICA11 IPOflIORED Overleaf I '-,\ fchool, // by Paul Glenn Orr, Ph.D. 1976 s' CENTER FOR IN I ERNATIONAL EDUCATION N ASSACHI'SETTS STATE Coil Fir SYSTEM I A Guide To School Board Policy: The American Sponsored Overseas School Printed in the United States of America 1976 This publication was made possible under Grant No. 2058499815 between the Government of the United States of America acting through the State Department and the Center for International Education of the Massachusetts State College System. The opinions, views and content herein express the views of the author and not the official view of the U.S. Government or the Massa- chusetts State College System. V4, II To ... My children, Paul, Dawson and Caryl, through whom I know that the future is bright. III INTRODUCTION CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION The State College System of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, through its Center of International Education, seeks to improve international relations and education through many programs and activities. Important among these is the publication and dissemination of research and research related literature. THE AUTHOR Mr. Orr is Dean and Professor of Educational Administration and Higher Education in the College of Education at The University of Alabama. In 1974, the Center For International Education published his book, The American Sponsored Overseas School: A Research Matrix. Mr. Orr received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and his B.S. from North Texas State University. THE BOOK This book treats the subject of school board policy, an increasingly important and complex topic for schools in the United States and for American Sponsored Overseas Schools. Policy is intended to guide the actions of those officials charged with the responsibility of administering schools to assure that what children and youth learn and the conditions under which they learn and develop reflects the best possible preparation for the future, for the individual and for a free and democratic society. Mr. Orr emphasizes that lay control by a school board is an American concept that has great popularity in American Sponsored Overseas Schools, and that this example of participatory democracy places an important responsibility on board members. Leonard J. Savignano Commonwealth Professor and Executive Director Center for International Education 5 PREFACE This book is the result of many years of study and observation of American Sponsored Overseas Schools: the students, parents, teachers, administrators, and boards of control; those who support them, study them, foster their improvement, utilize them for cross-cultural experience for university faculty and students, and United States based schools which form overseas linkages; and others who exercise some permissive control over the schools.. U.S. government agencies, U.S. accredit- ing agencies, National governments and ministries, and U.S. and National business and industry. The single most interesting phenomenon about these schools is that so many people and groups are interested in them for so many different reasons. This diver- sity of interest has been both a strength and a problem for the schools. They receive substantial offers of assistance but have difficulty in establishing goals and priorities which do not conflict or result in inconsistencies among and between their supporters. Some represent the essence of education in a democratic society and indeed can be called a "showcase" as President Lyndon B. Johnson suggested: multinational pupil and teacher populations, multicultural, bilingual curricula, involvement of parents in governance, and full cooperation and interchange between the school and the host country government. This characterization continues, however, to be a goal rather than a reality for the vast majority of the schools. Indeed, if schools through- out the world could demonstrate these goals and aspirations, mankind would take a quantum leap toward world understanding and the realization of the bold and brash hope of peace in a world in which the benefits of civilization are available to all of mankind. This hope, perhaps, represents the significance of interest in a group of schools that are otherwise quantitatively insignificant in number and students served. In an earlier publication, A Research Matrix: The American Sponsored Ove s School,I was impressed not only with the some 300 studies which have been con- ducted concerning these schools, but also with how much development is needed if they are to realize even part of their potential. Their importance is not only in their potential for better understanding an increasingly complex world, but also in their very real role in providing educational opportunity for the thousands of children of employees of U.S. government, business and industry stationed abroad. I accept as assumptions that the world is increasingly interdependent and that the U.S. will be involved worldwide during the future.I also recognize that U.S. employees abroad must have adequate schooling available for their children if they are to be productive and if outstanding people are to be attracted to and continue service abroad. Indeed, the independent American Sponsored Overseas Schools are of vital interest to a partnership of state and federal governments and private business and industry. Economic development is more and more interdependent. Last year, several million dollars of foreign capital was invested in Alabama and Alabama exports and markets abroad an increasing percentage of its products.. coal, soybeans, steel, pipe and so forth, but also important in the future, its technological knowledge. Each of the fifty states is involved now in the international arena and probably will be more involved in the future. The assurance that dependent U.S. children abroad have a reasonable educational opportunity is an interest and a responsibility of all states, the federal government, and U.S. business and industry. V e One of the most significant problems confronting the overseas schools is that they have not developed policies and processes to assure continuity and improvement. Currently, the schools' chief administrators have an average tenure of less than two years and school board membership also turns over after short times of service. The net result is that many of the schools lack a sense of direction and have no systematic plan to develop and improve. This book is designed to assist those schools in this area of need. Paul G. Orr, Ph.D. Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1976 7 VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation and publication of this

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