A large share of American school board members have no experience working in K-12 education, a fact that experts say presents both challenges and opportunities as members provide critical oversight for districts.
School boards, which are publicly elected and nonpartisan in most states, have a range of responsibilities from managing the superintendent to crafting budgets. They also approve policies and classroom curricula, all consequential decisions that filter down to students.
In many cases, the board members making these decisions have never worked in schools or school district administration, according to a new EdWeek Research Center survey. Effectively, they are often lay people, not education experts.
This summer, the EdWeek Research Center surveyed 478 school board members to gauge the biggest sources of tension in their communities, the barriers to building bridges between schools and families, and the steps boards are taking to close the gaps. The survey also collected demographic information about board members, a historically understudied group. The survey was conducted as part of Education Week’s annual Big Ideas special report exploring how districts build trust through communication and curiosity.
School board responsibilities, which typically include:
Just under half (44%) of respondents said they have never worked in K-12 education. Forty percent said they are retired from careers outside of board duties.
The disconnect between members’ professional experience and their responsibilities can pose challenges as new members navigate complex federal, state, and local policies, or learn how to work collaboratively with district staff, said Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin.
But a board member’s primary job is to represent the priorities and needs of the community, which is something anyone can accomplish, regardless of their professional. With strong training for new board members and a culture of collaboration, diverse backgrounds could benefit the district, she said.
For example, a board member with a background in occupational therapy can offer an important perspective when special education policy is under review, and a person with experience in law enforcement could help craft evidence-based school safety plans.
White noted that past surveys—one published in 2005 as part of a book “Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics,” and one by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in 2025—found an even smaller share of board members had professional experience in education. Those surveys reported that about 13% and 25% of board members were formerly educators, respectively.
Varying perspectives can ensure community representation
Vladimir Kogan, a professor of political science at Ohio State University, who studies education politics, agreed with White that school boards may benefit from a variety of expertise.
School board members’ jobs aren’t to manage the day-to-day operations of the school district, Kogan noted. Instead, they supervise the superintendent and ensure the district’s policies and priorities “are reflective of what the community wants.”
“Teachers are part of that community, but they’re not the only stakeholder,” Kogan said.
Kogan encouraged people to consider similar policy groups, like police advisory boards, which are often tasked with reviewing local policing policies and building bridges between police and the community. If all members of that board were former police officers, the public might object, Kogan said.
What the research says about educators on school boards
Past research shows that electing educators to local school boards often results in a pay bump for teachers, but does not correlate with higher student achievement or high school graduation rates.
The study, published in 2023 in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, showed that average state assessment scores were significantly lower in school districts overseen by school boards with a greater share of educators. However, the study didn’t assert that the presence of educators on local school boards was the causal factor. These districts also tended to be larger and have more minority students, who could have academic challenges not captured by the analysis.
The same study found that educators are 40% more likely to report being endorsed by teachers’ unions than members from other professional backgrounds. Teachers’ unions often make concerted efforts to encourage their members to run for school board seats and put resources behind campaigns.
A separate study released in September 2023 found that school board candidates of any profession who win the support of their local teachers’ union win their elections nearly three-quarters of the time. A union endorsement is more influential than any other endorsement, as well as a candidate’s promise to focus on student achievement or an incumbent’s track record of boosting it, according to that study.
