Accountability Matters: Charter School Authorizers' Perceptions of Charter School Board Members

• In Event: Charter School Leadership and Governance

Abstract

Despite the dominant presence of charter schooling in education reform discourse, charter school board governance is, to a great extent, under examined (Ford & Irkhe, 2019). Thus, this study aims to contribute to the scholarship on charter school boards and authorizers’ perceptions of board accountability. This study confirms earlier research from Ford and Irkhe (2019) which indicated that charter board members largely do not perceive themselves to be the primary drivers of charter school accountability. While Ford and Irkhe’s (2019) research portrayed charter school board members belief that test scores and school staff were the ultimate agents for accountability, authorizers in this study felt that charter school board members misplaced accountability in the hands of their charter management companies .

Authors

• Omotayo Adeeko, The Ohio State University

• Karen Stansberry Beard, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Belinda Gimbert, The Ohio State University