Local school boards have long been considered “a key
mechanism in the mutually dependent relationship
between education and democracy” (Resnick & Bryant,
2008, pg. 2), so much so that local control of public
schools is valued by over half of Americans who believe
that control authority should rest with locally-elected
school boards (Bushaw & Calderon, 2016). Yet, through
decades of standards, accountability and test-reforms
championed as a means for schools to achieve equity
and improve student and teacher performance, local
school boards gradually yielded policy-making discretion
to federal and state legislatures, businesses, and
bureaucracies (Erickson, 2014; Fusarelli, 2009;
Hadderman, 1988).