African-American and Hispanic students often fall behind because of the inadequate education they sometimes receive in potentially capable schools. “Civil rights is not primarily about integration,” says Don McAdams, president of Center for Reform of School Systems Inc. (CRSS), “but about providing equal opportunity, closing the achievement gap and educating all of our children to high standards.” McAdams helps school boards gain the knowledge and skills they need to implement policies that ensure their schools prepare all children to succeed in today’s more technology-dependent and information-oriented economy. He warns, “Our country won’t hold together very well if there is a bimodal distribution of wealth and opportunity.”

McAdams speaks from experience. He served on Houston ISD’s Board of Education from 1990 to 2002 and was president for two of those years. He admits he wasn’t sure what to do when he began and studied hard to find out. He realized that school boards could profoundly influence a district’s success; that most board members did not understand their role in making sure schools adapt to the 21st- century economy; and that like other professionals in responsible positions, school board members needed to be trained. McAdams established CRSS in 2001 and offered the first Texas Institute for School Boards, an induction program for new school board members, the following year.

The intense, four-day program begins by helping new board members learn how to work together and with a superintendent. Then they learn the basic building blocks of effective governance. McAdams explains that boards can implement policies around “standards, assessments, accountability, teacher quality, principal leadership and more.” He says boards select superintendents and determine how resources are allocated, who is hired as well as how they are trained and paid, and how schools operate. He adds, “If policies are well aligned and the superintendent effectively implements them, then schools will see positive results.”

CRSS annually trains new school board members from Texas’s 57 largest school districts, which enroll more than half of the state’s schoolchildren. Combined, the districts spend approximately $15 billion to operate each year. McAdams says, “CRSS gets board members to think of themselves as reform leaders who can enact policies and who can hire superintendents committed to eliminating the achievement gap and to promoting high achievement for all students. We instill the belief that they can do something about this pressing issue and then we teach them what they can actually do.”