What Are School Board Roles and Responsibilities?

Public school administrator Rebecca Lowry, PhD, served as an assistant and associate superintendent for school districts in Pennsylvania and Ohio before getting the top position at Westmoreland County Public Schools in Virginia. During her tenure as Westmoreland’s superintendent, Dr. Rebecca Lowry worked closely with the county’s five-member school board.

School board bodies are elected by local people to oversee student achievement and provide oversight for taxpayer-derived funding for public schools. School board members often serve as the mouthpiece for community concerns about school performance and public school budgets. Board members also appoint the district’s superintendent and are authorized by the state to govern the policies that regulate the public schools under their jurisdiction.

Board members come from all walks of life and reflect the diversity of their communities. While every state enforces its own eligibility criteria to run for a board position, many districts mandate candidate residency. Once elected, board members make a pledge to make decisions based on the best interests of students and their families.

The Field of Psychometric Evaluations

Formerly the superintendent of Westmoreland County Public Schools, Rebecca Lowry also served in an administrative role with the Cleveland Municipal School District. Now working as a school psychologist for Cumberland Therapies near Dayton, Ohio, Rebecca Lowry has an extensive background in psychometrics and program evaluation. 

Psychometrics describes a systematic approach to assessing a person's mental abilities and thought processes through scientific evaluations. Encompassing intelligence, aptitude, and personality tests, psychometric evaluations give us a better understanding of how the mind works and how one individual’s abilities compare to another’s. 

One of the earliest attempts at making psychometric evaluations was the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test, developed in 1908, then improved in 1916 and renamed the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. Although the original test has been adapted slightly over the last century, the same scale is still in use today to measure a person’s intelligence quotient, or IQ. 

Personality tests are another common type of psychometric evaluation, which collect data by gauging an individual's response to certain hypothetical situations. The tests are designed to reveal a person’s dominant personality traits by analyzing how they respond to various scenarios.

What Is Response to Intervention in the Educational Setting?

A former public school system superintendent, Rebecca Lowry currently works for Cumberland Therapies in the greater Dayton, Ohio, region. During her time as an assistant superintendent with Chichester School District, Rebecca Lowry oversaw behavioral and academic-support programs, including Response to Intervention (RTI).

The RTI strategy delivers targeted, intensive academic instruction to students who need help reaching grade-level standards. The process consists of three tiers. In the first RTI tier, a qualified teacher provides high-quality classroom instruction based on data-backed best practices. Students receive regular screening, and those who need extra support receive supplemental instruction in the regular classroom. Students are monitored for progress toward curriculum-based standards over a period of approximately eight weeks. Those who have not sufficiently improved their skills move to Tier 2.

Tier 2 of RTI consists of targeted interventions in a small-group setting in addition to general classroom instruction. Progress monitoring continues, and if students show too little progress, they move to Tier 3, which consists of increased intensive interventions and, if necessary, a more comprehensive educational evaluation to determine whether a student needs special-education services. 
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Career Paths in Educational Leadership

Ohio-based education professional Rebecca Lowry has previously worked in senior leadership and consulting roles in school districts in Cleveland and in Montross, Virginia. Rebecca Lowry obtained a PhD in educational leadership and went on to serve as superintendent of Westmoreland County Public Schools from 2011 to 2015.

Entering the educational leadership field is a great choice for experienced teachers looking for a new challenge. Educational leaders work in all educational institutions, from early elementary to higher education. Most positions involve a combination of administrative duties , teacher coaching, and program or department oversight. 

Educational leaders are often responsible for setting and carrying out department goals and are accountable for teacher development. Some leaders may also be responsible for managing budgets and reviewing curricula. They play important roles in school boards and committees and often serve as department heads or oversee entire programs. 

Besides extensive teaching experience, most educational leaders hold master's or doctorates in educational leadership, or may even possess advanced degrees in subject-specific fields.