Building Social Capital by Balancing Voices in School Governance

We propose that schools can build social capital through an explicit school governance framework called Balancing Voices that concerns decisions about implementing and evaluating new schoolwide policies or practices, engaging community members, and evaluating teachers and administrators.  In an RCT of role play simulations, those assigned to a Balancing Voices approach versus business-as-usual reported higher levels of key precursors of social capital — procedural fairness and legitimacy of authority figures.  The estimated effects are especially positive for those who played roles other than administrator. Accordingly, schools that more explicitly and formally balance the interests of different stakeholders in their decision making may be able to cultivate greater flows of social capital to improve instructional practices and student outcomes, including equity.