Looking at an elected school board?

I'm thinking here of friends in Boston who'd like to elected their school committee, but any community that is pushing for an elected school board should read and use this recent review of the evidence by the Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education out of the University of Illinois at Chicago. While it is drawing from the evidence from Chicago, the conclusions apply much more broadly:

After 20 years of mayoral control in Chicago, the research paints an alarming picture—Board policies and actions have resulted in a school district that is more unequal on nearly every measure we examined. In sum, high stakes accountability practices, school closings, selective programs, privatization, and CPS budget priorities have exacerbated historical educational inequalities. The Board’s policies under mayoral control are educationally insupportable. This presses us to ask: Whose interests does the Board serve? Financial and political interests, or the majority of CPS students?