This paper asserts that traditional leadership models are inappropriate for Catholic schools and offers a new paradigm based on transformational Christian leadership. Christian leadership is a function of the group that is not synonymous with position or authority. Everyone has the potential to be a leader. Such leadership is communal, generative…

This paper discusses barriers encountered by leaders when they attempt to implement change and redirect the collective focus in groups. It describes co-creative relationships that occur when leaders and followers work together in a reciprocally responsible relationship based on a common purpose. The process of covenanting toward a common purpose,…

This booklet contains the stories of six teachers who discuss, step by step, how they each handled a specific restructuring challenge in their schools. They describe what strategies worked and what did not, and provide diagrams and checklists to help other teachers. Chapter 1 describes the implementation of a collaborative school-based…

Evaluations of school restructuring, particularly school-based management (SBM) and shared decision making (SDM), have tended to focus on problems of implementation and on its consequent failure to fulfill its promises. Inadequate resources, unclear responsibilities, inhibiting regulations, and institutional resistance have all been cited as…

Many communities have replaced top-down, highly centralized educational structures with a decentralized model in which decisions are made at the school level. This concept relies on broad participation and support from the school personnel and the community. However, the effort to decentralize schools often faces opposition. This problem can be…

This booklet describes one of the earliest staff development models to support school-based improvement, the RPTIM model. The letters "RPTIM" represent the five stages of the school-based approach to staff development--readiness, planning, training, implementation, and maintenance. The model is based on the belief that the school is the primary…

A study examined decision making within one large urban high school's restructuring efforts, using an emergent qualitative case-study design. Data, collected over a 2-year period, included formal and informal interviews, participant and nonparticipant observations, surveys, and documents. Results of data analysis supported matching the…

As interest in school-based management grows and the number of efforts increases, the gap between the strategy's potential and its realization is being explored. Although school-based management may stimulate a redistribution of informal power or influence, there is little evidence that significant, long-lasting, or widespread changes are…

Findings from a study to determine the knowledge base among Kentucky superintendents about site-based management (SBM) are presented in this paper. Questionnaires mailed to all of the state's 177 public school superintendents yielded a 73 percent response rate. Findings indicate that while there was considerable interest in SBM, there was…

Outcomes of a mainstreaming program implemented in 1984 by the Winooski Public School District (Vermont) are presented in this paper. All children in the community receive their education in general education classrooms and community settings. This paper identifies the evolutionary processes and key organizational and instructional practices that…

Findings of a study that examined the level of teacher engagement in school reform in Chicago Public Schools and differences in the level of engagement across schools are presented in this paper. The School Reform Act of 1988 transferred much of the policymaking and administrative authority from the central school board to Local School Councils…

This study investigated the practicality and feasibility of the public school administrator permitting those concerned, faculty, students, parents and interested citizens, to participate in the decision making process of the local school. An added purpose was to find applicable and effective ways the principal could support meaningful…

Findings of a study that examined the effect of school restructuring, particularly increased teacher participative decision-making, on classroom teaching practices are presented in this paper. Data were derived from: (1) classroom observations of 33 elementary and senior high schools, which matched pilot with nonpilot schools, and (2) a…

Shared decision-making (SDM) is becoming a part of many American schools. Shared decision making is based on a premise that relies on four main assumptions: (1) those closest to the children will make the best decisions concerning the children's education; (2) teachers, parents, and school staff should have influence in policies; (3) those who…

Like school-based management, school-site councils offer some attractive reform possibilities, including broadly based, democratic decision-making; enhanced sensitivity to specific school climates; and widely shared responsibility. Site councils can be ineffective, even harmful, when lacking sufficient support, expertise, and time to succeed. This…