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Board Responsibility for Equitable Student Success

Board Roles and Responsibilities

Selecting, supporting, and assessing the chief executive of the institution/system

  • Arguably the most influential role that boards have is to select, support, and evaluate the institutional chief executive and/or system head​.
  • Boards can use this influence to elevate equitable student success as a leadership requisite.

Action Items

  • Incorporate criteria for equitable student success into the recruitment, selection, and evaluation factors for the chief executive.
  • If your institution says equitable student success is a priority, evidence of the success must be placed prominently in the recruitment and vetting process.
  • The actions and progress of the chief executive should be monitored with the lens of equitable student success, and compensation decisions should reflect achievement of related goals​.

Metrics and Assessment Tactics

  • Require a history of improved student success.
  • Ask questions centered on equitable student success during the candidate’s interview.
  • Request an equitable student success statement​.
  • Ask the candidate to show evidence of equitable student success in past work.

Questions to Pose

  • What are the ways you have worked to support equitable student success at your current or past institution? ​
  • What are the ways in which different students require different resources for student success?​
  • How are those different resources provided?​
  • What goals and evidence of achievements regarding equitable student success does the board use in assessing the chief executive? ​
  • Are incentives leading to greater equity and student success? If not, why not?​
  • Boards should ask questions based on their understanding of current positioning: Do we need a transformational or transactional leader?​

What does success look like?

The candidate can craft a definition of equitable student success.

The candidate can convey a plan for equitable student success.

The chief executive makes decisions with equitable student success in mind.

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