Stay in Your Lane, Speak with One Voice: How School Board Norms Perpetuate Racial Inequity

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Troubled Organizational Waters: Racial Equity/Inequity, Politics, and Change

Abstract

The persistence of educational disparities for minoritized students suggests schools perpetuate social inequities along racial lines (Kundu, 2025). School board members play a pivotal role as district policymakers whose choices affect racial disparities in schooling. Lacking direct experience as educators (NSBA, 2019), substantial professional development (Roberts & Sampson, 2011), and relevant empirical research (Sampson, 2019), school boards turn to institutional norms (Suchman, 1995) to guide behavior. This study explores how school board members in three districts “stay in their lane” and “speak with one voice,” thereby failing to disrupt racism. Targeting these routines offers one avenue for achieving more racially just schools (Diamond & Gomez, 2023). This study contributes to limited scholarship on school boards and on race and organizations.

Author

• Ann LoBue, Teachers College, Columbia University