After two semesters of using the four-block schedule, a Wisconsin high school experienced academic growth, improved grades and discipline, reduced stress, and a more personalized school environment. Interested schools should gain support, create a site-level decision-making model, demonstrate the need for change, clearly define restructuring…

Uses survey methodology to investigate elementary and middle school teachers' actual, preferred, and deprived participation in 16 areas of school-level decision-making involving New Jersey's whole-school reform program over 2-year period. Finds, for example, that teachers had less than preferred participation in all 16 areas and high levels of…

New York's Johnson City Central School District adopted the teacher support. Includes seven references. (MLH)

Whereas the laissez-faire approach merely tells each teacher to do what he or she thinks best, the principal moving toward empowerment charges a group of teachers with devising the best decision for all. A Maryland elementary school used the Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement staff development plan as a big step toward preparing teachers…

Although school-based management takes many forms, its essence is school level autonomy plus participatory decision-making. This article discusses implications for budget, staffing, curriculum, and beyond. The key is substituting participation for authority. A sidebar presents research highlights. Includes 26 references. (MLH)

Tested conceptual model of context, processes, and outcomes of joint marital decision making of married couples (N=188) which specified spouses' process variables as individual-level measures and partners' consensus as a couple construct. Found context factor of spouses' emotional interdependence influenced both partners' coerciveness and degree…

A review of 200 documents describing site-based management in the United States, Canada, and Australia shows that this management style does not achieve its stated objectives to change school policy, broaden decision-making, and improve instruction or student achievement. Program viability, site conditions, and assessment issues are discussed. A…

Most decisions are made not by individuals but by groups. Knowing how the group process works and how information enters it can improve the quality of decisions, and can enhance the institutional researcher's role as data supplier and lead methodologist. (Author/MSE)

According to a 1987 survey of administrators in 154 exemplary middle schools, certain implementation strategies are essential to ensure success, including participatory decision-making, leadership and philosophical vision, windows of opportunity, staff development, and evaluation and public relations expertise. Postimplementation strategies are…

Overwhelmed by an unending stream of middle school offenders referred to his office, a new vice-principal decided to abandon his solitary shamanship and seek staff assistance. The result--a trained, 16-member student leadership group (assisted by faculty advisers) to orient other students and teachers to a vastly improved school ethic. (MLH)

When traditional approaches to literacy programs and learners are examined critically, a new participatory paradigm that recognizes learners' capacities to shape and control program development emerges. (Editor)

A national literacy effort built on participatory principles will require study of existing learner-centered theory and practice, resource development, research and development, training and networking, and careful planning. Literacy educators and learners must support each other to create a constituency for the participatory alternative. (Editor)

Proposes that cultural and role variables within organizations will predict the extent to which individuals hold a collective or individualistic approach to organizational life. Finds that effects of participation and allocation on organizational participants is moderated by the culture of the organization and the roles individuals play within the…

The current educational reform movement differs from past efforts primarily because of the greatly expanded role of teachers and their organizations in school management and improvement. This broader context of teaching is reflected in such innovations as participatory decision-making and school improvement teams with teachers as equal partners.…

Control of the budget function is at the heart of SBM. Only by accepting site-based budgeting can a district restore a sense of influence to those nearest the school and its students. Allowing individual schools to control the budgeting process should enhance staff responsiveness while returning decision-making power to the building level. (21…