School Board Coaching Framework

Dorchester County, MD

Program Summary

  1. Goal: J2W will provide sufficient funding to provide governance support and coaching to enhance the effectiveness and leadership of the Dorchester County Public School Board. This strategy is designed to build board effectiveness, strengthen superintendent-board collaboration, and establish governance structures that improve student outcomes. An initial Board retreat, followed by ongoing coaching will foster a professional and cohesive governance approach, enabling the Board to navigate its responsibilities effectively. J2W will partner with DCPS and Perkins Consulting Group to provide tailored and sustained professional, focused on improving working relationships and establishing a strong foundation for impactful and effective governance.
  2. J2W will provide one initial year of funding, with optional continuation for multiple years.
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DCPS Dorchester County Public Schools logo.

Measures of Performance

Coming Soon!

Data Analysis

  1. The Approach: Perkins Consulting Group offers a comprehensive, long-term approach to professional development for school boards and superintendents, designed to transform board culture, capacity, and productivity. Unlike traditional, “one-and-done” trainings, these services provide ongoing, wrap-around support to meet the evolving needs of the Board.
    These services include:

    1. Board Retreat Facilitation
    2. Board Meeting Observations and Feedback
    3. Policy Development
    4. District Goal-Setting Facilitation
    5. Training on Essential Governance Practices
    6. 1:1 Governance Coaching

    This strategy emphasizes building and strengthening relationships at all levels of governance to promote effective collaboration and to ensure the district can meet the needs of its students. Specifically, it focuses on fostering cohesion and trust within the new Board while strengthening its working relationship with the superintendent.

  2. Performance Measures: We will begin this strategy with a focus on creating a strong foundation and set of processes by which the School Board training program can and should perform most effectively. As the coaching framework begins, we will look to assess effectiveness by analyzing the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
    1. Agenda Focus on Student Performance & Experience: Percentage of total meeting time (minutes) devoted to student achievement, well-being, and experience.
    2. Depth of Strategic Deliberation: Both the number of agenda items labeled “Strategic Discussion” versus “Consent” or “Monitoring” and the average length of discussion (in minutes) per strategic item.
    3. Policy Review & Renewal Compliance: Percentage of policies reviewed or updated on schedule per the Governance Calendar.
    4. Action-Item Closure Rate: Percentage of Board-assigned action items completed by the target date.
    5. Board Self-Assessment Participation & Improvement: Both the completion rate of the standardized self-assessment tool and year-over-year average score improvement on key domains (e.g., visioning, monitoring, ethics).
    6. Retreat Attendance & Engagement: Both attendance rate at the two annual retreats and post-retreat feedback scores.
    7. Peer Facilitation Rotation Adherence: Percentage of sessions in which the designated peer facilitator led, or co-led, as per the rotation plan.
    8. Strategic-Plan Milestone Completion: Percentage of board-approved strategic-plan milestones achieved on time.
    9. Community & Stakeholder Engagement Activities: Both the number of board-sponsored community forums, site visits, or advocacy events and stakeholder satisfaction rating (via brief post-event surveys).
    10. Ethical Leadership & Conflict Resolution Efficacy: Both the number of ethics or conduct issues raised and resolved via the agreed ICS peer-coaching process, and resolution turnaround time.
  3. We expect to begin evaluating the above KPIs for effectiveness no later than Spring 2026.