Under the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) is the provision that creates school councils and delegates to them the authority to make important educational decisions to improve student performance. This paper describes findings from the third year of a 5-year study of SBDM that focused on early examples of…

Decentralization has been one of the centerpieces of education reform in the United States over the past decade, yet the results so far are not encouraging. This booklet presents findings of a study that explored the hypothesis that decentralization efforts have failed to relax external constraints on schools or to enable school staffs to make…

This paper describes the recurring behavior patterns exhibited by first-year schools in the Louisiana Accelerated Schools Network during the evaluation process conducted during the years 1992 and 1993. These patterns are viewed through the lens of one of the three guiding principles of the accelerated schools process--empowerment coupled with…

This paper argues that many site-based management practices do not represent true empowerment and are not founded on a consensual framework of values, goals, and priorities developed by educational stakeholders. In addition, they often lack clearly stated operating principles. The paper distinguishes between site-based management (SBM) and…

Today, prevailing views of leadership suggest that the principal's role should not be to direct others but to create a school culture in which decisions are made collaboratively. Such "facilitative" leadership exercises power through others, not over them. The basic question is whether or not these two leadership styles are mutually…

This document consists of a 5-day high school level study unit on issues surrounding immigration into the United States. The lessons seek to engage students in the immigration debate while at the same time exploring the topic's historical background. At the core of the unit is a framework of four options for U.S. immigration policy: (1)…

School based decision making (SBDM) has become one of the of hottest issues in education today. In SBDM the local governing body consists of parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators responsible for the legislative duties of running their school. Since most decision-making programs are geared for use in business settings…

Findings of a study that examined the perceived effects of school-based decision making (SBDM) on school curriculum, particularly vocational education, and decision-making processes are presented in this document. Sixty-nine secondary schools in Kentucky participated in SBDM during the 1991-92 school year. Data were obtained from a survey mailed…

Findings of a study that examined eight South Carolina school-improvement councils (SICs) that were identified as effective are presented in this report. The sample included SICs from two high schools, two middle schools, and four elementary schools that had indicated in a previous survey that they had basic organizational structures, effective…

This paper describes the process undertaken by the Meneley Elementary School in Douglas County, Nevada, to develop a plan for shared governance. In 1989, the school became a participant in the Nevada School Improvement Project (SIP). The new governance plan established a Decision Making Council (DMC), composed of representatives from each grade…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the role principals play as schools institute democratic governance structures. During 2.5 years, data were collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis at six schools engaged in a shared decision-making (SDM) project. Findings suggest that for principals to foster SDM in…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined teachers' perceptions of opportunities for and their willingness to participate in decision making regarding program evaluation. Questionnaires were mailed to a random sample of 477 K-12 teachers in the New York public school system, eliciting an unspecified number of responses. Overall,…

This bibliography is useful to those interested in the intersection of collaborative learning concerns and enhanced citizen participation. In addition to an introduction, there are five parts: (1) general information on study circles and small group discussion (8 references); (2) the theory of collaborative learning in small groups and study…

This study examined trends and issues in the involvement of college faculty in institutional governance between 1994 and 1997. The study reviewed 132 issues of "The Chronicle of Higher Education" published during this period to identify any article or news report related to faculty involvement in governance. These topics included faculty…

Quality circles, a management practice that involves groups of workers from the same work area voluntarily meeting on a regular basis to identify, analyze, and solve various work-related problems, have been used in Japan for over 40 years. In the United States, quality circles have been tried in many organizations during the past 2 decades and…