Behind the Headline: Has the MCPS Board Learned Its Lesson?

On Top of the News
Has the MCPS Board Learned Its Lesson?
Bethesda magazine | May-June 2016

Behind the Headline
Lost at Sea
Education Next | Summer 2004

How does a local school board decide to hire a superintendent? Or fire a superintendent? In Montomery County, Md., a suburban school district outside of Washington, D.C. with over 150,000 students and an annual budget of $2.4 billion, most people probably couldn’t answer these questions because much of the work of the school board seems to take place behind closed doors.ednext-may16-bth-mcpsboard

In a long article for Bethesda magazine, Lou Peck gives readers a look behind those closed doors at the sometimes dysfunctional workings of the Montgomery County school board, which hired a superintendent, fired a superintendent, and tried to hire a new superintendent in a process that left many residents of the county perplexed.

Chester E. Finn, Jr. identifies several problems with relying on local school boards to run school districts in”Lost at Sea” (co-authored with Lisa Graham Keegan) and  “The Problems of Education Governance in Twenty-First Century America.”

—Education Next

Last Updated

NEWSLETTER

Notify Me When Education Next

Posts a Big Story

Business + Editorial Office

Program on Education Policy and Governance
Harvard Kennedy School
79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone (617) 496-5488
Fax (617) 496-4428
Email Education_Next@hks.harvard.edu

For subscription service to the printed journal
Phone (617) 496-5488
Email subscriptions@educationnext.org

Copyright © 2024 President & Fellows of Harvard College