Taking stock of school board concerns. .

Though there are many significant differences between large and small school boards, board members share many of the same concerns, according to a new survey by a University of Virginia education professor.

The survey, prepared for the National School Boards Association by professor Frederick M. Hess, found that large and small school systems alike put a high priority on student achievement. For the report, School Boards at the Dawn of the 21st Century, Hess surveyed board members in 2,000 of the nation's 14,890 school systems. Respondents cited funding issues and special education as top concerns along with student achievement. More than 85 percent of school board members also listed teacher quality and improving education technology as significant or moderate concerns.

Hess found that despite these common issues, the public image of school systems are largely based on conditions that prevail in large, urban districts, which comprise just 2 percent of all schools nationwide. Large districts are defined as those with 25,000 or more students.

Some of the differences Hess found between districts large and small included the way the boards operate. In large districts, school boards are more political with more costly campaigns and hotly contested races for board seats.

"I think the most significant finding is the revelation that there are really two entirely different kinds of school boards," says Hess. "Large district boards are not unlike city councils, demanding a lot of time, entailing some degree of civic and political pressure, and featuring some number of semiprofessional campaigns. These are the districts we hear about and think about most of the time, even though they are only a handful of the nation's districts."

Hess says he was also surprised by the research that showed that unions did not have a more influential role in campaigns and that board members feel less than fully prepared to tackle a number of key challenges, but still don't desire additional training.

This data shows "you cannot make general statements about the thousands of school boards across the country from the problems of a troubled few," said Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, in a recent column. "There are considerable differences in the ways school boards operate in rural areas, suburbs and cities." www.nsba.org

Top 5 School Board Concerns

Budget/funding                  98%
Student achievement             97
Special education               88
Improving education technology  88
Teacher quality                 87

Source: School Boards at the Dawn of the 21st Century, NSBA