For Immediate Release: October 22, 2015

Contact: Renee Rybak Lang, renee.lang@nasbe.org, 703-244-9954

NASBE Releases Study Group Reports on Leadership Development and Career Readiness

Baltimore, Md. – The National Association of State Boards of Education released two new reports today outlining ways state boards of education can improve school leadership development and ensure students are “career-ready” in their states. The reports are a product of two, year-long study groups chaired by West Virginia State Board Member William “Bill” White, and Arkansas State Board Member Mireya Reith respectively.

Successful Leaders for Successful Schools: Building and Maintaining a Quality Workforce argues the development of school leaders hasn’t received enough attention at the state level and state boards of education are uniquely positioned to change this. The study group proposes a State Leadership Development Policy framework to help guide state boards as they create policies around leadership development, including ways to develop a system of organizational supports for developing leaders as well as facilitating the capacity building of individual leaders.

“College and career ready” has been used to describe countless efforts in education, but often, little thought is given to ensuring students are prepared to enter the workforce. Bolstering the Second C in College and Career Readiness suggests state boards of education take the long view on developing career-readiness policies. They should approach the issue as part of a broader, more comprehensive effort to ensure students are prepared for college, career, and civic success.

Both White and Reith were joined today by several experts to discuss the findings of the study groups at NASBE’s Annual Conference in Baltimore. Detail about the conference can be found here.

“NASBE’s study groups bring together the experts on state policy—state board of education members—to learn what works and to share their findings with other education policymakers,” says NASBE Executive Director Kristen Amundson. “These reports will help guide state boards as they address these two important issues in the coming years.”

The National Association of State Boards of Education represents America’s state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives are to strengthen state leadership in education policymaking, advocate equality of access to educational opportunity, promote excellence in the education of all students, and ensure responsible lay governance of education.

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