This paper analyzes changes in decision-making in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and tries to identify trends in these countries' reforms. In general, the reforms initiated by these five countries redesigned the loci of decision-making between the government levels, modified the modes of decision at these levels, and…

This report marks a midpoint in the Annenberg $500 million challenge to improve public schools. It comes at a time when evidence from the Annenberg Challenge's first projects has started to accumulate--and to suggest that the program is indeed having a beneficial impact on students, schools, and communities. This report also furnishes early…

This report presents findings and conclusions gleaned from a review of 42 cases of indigenous development in Latin America. Findings indicate that the lack of a legal framework for indigenous rights presents a basic obstacle to indigenous self-development; the most common aspect of successful indigenous development was involvement of indigenous…

This paper reports on a pilot study that emerged from two separate doctoral studies on teacher curriculum decision making and school-based management. The pilot study investigated the interface of curriculum making and educational partnership, noting conceptual and contextual links between the thinking and practice of teacher curriculum decision…

Building partnerships among teachers is essential to enhance student learning. The Richardson-Rivers Collaboration Model emphasizes the importance of relationship building and describes procedures for successful classroom collaboration among teachers. The model combines theoretical constructs based on the Johari window and Jung's personality…

This report documents findings from site visits and other data collected by the Schools of the 21st Century (S21C)-Detroit Annenberg Challenge External Evaluation Team during the 2000-01 school year regarding Detroit's Leadership Schools efforts. The S21C approach emphasized improving student-teacher relationships, enhancing school-community…

This paper describes how one faculty member worked toward becoming a more democratic teacher educator. The instructor proved that by re-examining one's teaching practice and working with students to create a more democratic higher education classroom, this can be achieved. The goal was to scaffold student learning by constructing a democratic…

Since the late 1800s, factors that stimulated growth of outing clubs at colleges and universities included the desire to get outdoors and explore and the clubs' ability to provide outdoor training, access, and equipment. Outing clubs were initially formed by students. The outing clubs at Williams College, Dartmouth, and Allegheny College were all…

This paper outlines a matrix approach to shared governance developed at Central Michigan University (CMU), designed to help faculty and administrators focus on specific decision areas and to define existing roles more clearly. The process began at CMU in spring 1998 with the formation of an ad hoc committee on governance which surveyed faculty and…

This is the final report in the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's series of national surveys monitoring the impact of the "Tomorrow's Schools" reforms, which began in 1989. These reforms shifted substantial financial and administrative responsibilities from the former Department of Education and Education Boards to staff and…

Decentralization and budget reduction in the public sector, and globalization and downsizing in the private sector have placed more responsibility on localities to address challenges to the health of their economies, ecosystems, and people. Community development theory and practice are also changing, evidenced by changes in vocabulary. Community…

This paper explores the question of who should be involved in strategic decisions that affect a school, a cluster of schools, or an entire school district. It discusses the common problems that hamper effective participation: such as workgroups that are too large or too small; selecting the same roster of persons to serve as team members; choosing…

This paper presents information and strategies designed to enable teachers and counselors to understand, practice, and utilize the group process known as open classroom meetings. It considers the types of classroom meetings that can be utilized, such as social problem solving meetings, open-ended meetings, and educational diagnostic meetings. The…

This report describes principles of community organization that can contribute to sustainable community renewal. Community is composed of social networks which form the community infrastructure. Relationships among people with the same roles are passive; relationships that cross role boundaries are active. Communities that exhibit active…

Two results of minority pressure for community involvement in educational decision making are (1) administrative decentralization and community participation, and (2) administrative decentralization and community control. However, regarding "community control," controversy abounds over whether elected public officials and professional educators or…