An ongoing 5-year study of Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) implementation in four rural Kentucky school districts explores the establishment of school-based decision making (SBDM) in the 20 schools in the districts. In the 3 years since KERA took effect, 10 of the 20 schools have adopted SBDM. The paper focuses primarily on the seven schools that began formal implementation in 1991-92. Only one of the seven school councils studied practiced balanced decision making where all members (principal, teachers, and parents) participated as equals in discussion and decisions. In three councils, teachers and principals dominated decision making, although parents at two of these schools have begun to play a stronger role. The remaining three councils served as advisory groups to the principal and did not appear to be moving toward broader participation in decision making. Councils that practiced some level of shared decision making made key decisions in such areas as budgeting, scheduling, and to some extent, curriculum. All councils, regardless of their decision-making mode, participated in decisions about personnel and, to some extent, discipline. Beyond making decisions in these two areas, councils that played an advisory role to the principal mostly rubber-stamped decisions made by the principal or teacher committees. Factors that contributed to effective SBDM implementation were the principal's support and facilitation of SBDM, leadership by other council members, attentiveness to the need for parent involvement, and council training. The reverse of these impeded implementation. (KS)