ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the intended purposes of school boards as revealed by their composition and powers and draws on current research evidence and recent developments to argue that boards have developed in ways unanticipated by government. It considers two aspects of representation: how representative parent board members are in terms of the generality of parents and how board members keep in touch with parents about their concerns. The attempt by government to harness parental support for its policies has been largely unsuccessful in Scotland. In Scotland a number of local federations of school boards are now in existence, and a national association or federation is in the process of being bom. Education authorities, therefore, are likely to be confronted with demands from school boards for additional resources for their schools. The signs so far in Scotland are that parents' groups and parents' associations have joined education authorities and teachers' unions to protest against central government policy on national testing.
