About School Board Partners
What We Do
School Board Partners is a nonprofit organization focused on transforming education in America by supporting, connecting and re-electing representative, student-focused school board members across the country to lead with courage, competence, and impact.
School Board Partners selects emerging leaders who reflect the communities their schools serve. We train and support them to be more effective board members and to pass kids-first policies that clear the way for research-based interventions and environments to create better experiences and outcomes for students.
We help school board members turn their campaign promises into real policy change for kids.
Our Impact
At SBP, our multifaceted impact is focused across four distinct levels: Field-building and Research, City and Regional Ecosystem Development, Whole Board Work, and Supporting and Developing School Board Members.
Field-building and Research:
We actively engage in field-building and research endeavors aimed at cultivating a robust school board ecosystem, both locally and nationally.
Our Empty Seats Report has been downloaded hundreds of times and cited in over a dozen articles. Several nonprofits have credited it with supporting their fundraising and recruitment efforts. The report has also informed the development of two state policies—one passed in Oregon requiring equity-focused school board training and allowing compensation, and another under consideration in Chicago to allow compensation.
In addition to Empty Seats, our Fulfilling Promises report spotlights how school boards are doing at delivering on commitments to students and communities. It’s already helping leaders, journalists, and advocates push for accountability and better outcomes.
City and Regional Ecosystem Development:
Through strategic partnerships, we support the development of city and regional ecosystems for school board members to advance effective governance.
Members of our regional, partnership-based cohorts are running for school board—and winning. They’re leading more effective boards, passing meaningful policies, and stepping into key leadership roles.
Whole Board Work:
School Board Partners offers whole board consulting that does more than train—it transforms.
Through our Empowered Governance framework, we help school boards move from dysfunction to clarity, from compliance to leadership, and from reactive decision-making to bold, student-centered governance with clear metrics, goals, and outcomes.
If your board is ready to work better together, govern with purpose, and make decisions that improve outcomes for all students—SBP is your long-term partner for real change.
Supporting and Developing School Board Members:
Recognizing the crucial role school board members play in the educational landscape, we have built best in class training and support services to develop them into effective governance leaders.
Our efforts focus on equipping board members with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to navigate the complexities of their roles effectively.
See Our Impact
Student-Centered Strategies
We close the representation power gap on school boards by training and sustaining diverse school board members to lead their boards as President/VP.
Policy Change
Representative and empowered school board members rewrite historic systemic barriers that disproportionately affect students of color in our nation's public schools.
Student Opportunity
Good governance and student-first policies clear the way for research-based, high quality interventions and environments to create better experiences and outcomes for students.
Our Mission
School Board Partners is a national nonprofit that trains, supports, connects, and re-elects representative school board members across the country to lead with courage, competence, and impact.
Our Vision
We envision a future in which American school systems are governed by well-trained, representative, elected leaders who leverage their power to uplift all students and their families, with a particular focus on majority minority districts. These leaders re-imagine policies, partnerships, and conditions so that dynamic systems of high-quality schools emerge, improve, and endure.
The realization of this vision is vital to creating a future where all students have the opportunity to thrive and self-actualize.
Our Values
Deliberate Inclusion & Belonging
Wide-Ranging Thought Leadership
Irrational Hope
Narrative Reclamation
Righteous Disruptive Impact
Strategic Bridge Building
Value-Driver Courage
Empowered Governance℠
To bring our mission, vision, and values to life, we use our own Empowered Governance Model.
SBP’s Empowered Governance Model is the first of its kind—providing Superintendents and School Boards with plug-and-play exemplar policies that help districts implement research-based practices and create inclusive environments that improve student experiences and outcomes.
The model is built around four core principles:
Policy-centered leadership
Student-centered practices
Balance of power
Measurable accountability
from our ceo