Provides an overview of a six-year collaborative literacy project. Discusses several key elements, processes, and beliefs that played a crucial role in the transformation of literacy practices in a small K-8 school district. Discusses time for growth, literate and thoughtful inservice sessions, imaginative expansion of roles, ongoing support and…

School-based development and self-evaluation were introduced at 16 Scottish schools. After 15 months, 5 schools had made substantial progress toward their chosen priorities, whereas 2 had hardly begun. Conflicts were evident between the collegiate style of self-evaluation and the hierarchical power structure in most schools. (SV)

The curriculum conference is a specific, practical strategy for deliberative curriculum problem solving at the district or national level. This article explains the deliberation method and its two important characteristics, argumentation and interaction. An analysis of all three decision-making processes in one such conference showed that…

Rejecting the voucher concept for promoting unequal education, this article endorses the "public/private partnership" model of reinvented school governance. Under this system, teachers and administrators remain public employees but are managed by a private company. Jay P. Goldman's sidebar criticizes privatization schemes as unworkable…

A Michigan high school abandoned its coercive school management practices for a system actively involving students in decision making. To help students feel they could make a difference, the Reaching Success through Involvement format was used to identify six workable student-involvement areas: extracurricular activities, school governance,…

Discussion of communication between designers and users of information systems focuses on a review of seven participatory design techniques in terms of the communication dimensions found in the Lievrouw and Finn communication systems model. Implications for the development of more effective and appropriate design models and methods are suggested.…

Working for four years in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, as headmaster of the International School, has increased this administrator's belief in community governance of its schools through an elected legislative body. Lists five questions that can help boards determine issues that they alone should decide, and those that may involve teachers. (MLF)

Explores both the practical and legal obstacles facing school-based management, with an emphasis on legal requirements in the state of New York. Suggests that school-based management may be the precursor to a reevaluation of the legal structure of school management labor relations. (MLF)

Describes restructuring in a Western Australian school district. Provides background information and summarizes findings of a case study exploring what primary teachers thought about the restructuring of their work. The 60 teachers interviewed generally thought the restructuring process negatively influenced their curriculum work. Teachers felt…

Investigates teachers' and principals' perceptions of instructional leadership in a sample of Western Australian government primary and secondary schools, using the Instructional Leadership Questionnaire. Instructional leadership was viewed as a shared responsibility; teachers felt principals were less involved than principals felt they were.…

Superintendents, a principal, a teacher, and representatives of the National Education Association describe how they are attempting to resolve the question of establishing parameters in shared decision-making programs. Also lists 12 principles necessary for effective decision making to commence and 12 effective practices in shared decision making.…

Describes the development of regulations to implement Prince Edward Island legislation guaranteeing the rights of the francophone community to French first-language instruction and participation in program development and administration. Discusses difficulties in devising an administrative scheme acceptable to both French and English communities.…

Describes a management strategy used by a superintendent to decentralize the decision-making process. Reviews site-based management as it relates to developing a mission statement, establishing a management team, and incorporating school-based decision making in the areas of staffing, budget, and curriculum. (KS)

A chart presents details about school-based management systems in Chicago, Boston, Kentucky, Duluth, Dade County (Florida), and Texas, focusing on decision making, parent and community involvement, and structure. (SM)

Examines budgeting policies in five large urban school districts that have adopted school-based management to characterize the extent to which dollars have been decentralized, along with decision-making responsibility and authority. Contrary to other studies, results suggest that new decision-making patterns exist that effectively empower…