Dutch boards governing multiple schools: navigating between autonomy and expectations

ABSTRACT Over the last decade the governance of primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands has by no means become simpler. This paper sketches recent policy developments and their consequences for the leadership of Boards of Multiple Schools (BMSs) and their school leaders. Thereof we describe the challenges BMSs in the Netherlands currently face to enhance educational quality. However, the existence of a wide variety of school board types and a lack of research into BMSs prevent a solid evidence base on how the leadership of school boards contributes to improving the quality of education in the schools they run. As the interaction between school leaders and boards is understudied we make a plea for a research agenda that does justice to challenges for school leadership in multi-school systems.