Examines the construction of art knowledge and criticizes curriculum reform proposals that ignore constraints of the work place. Suggests that reform efforts should be defined locally and that teachers should be afforded the opportunity to develop their decision making abilities as a means of helping this local control. (KO)

With decentralization and school-based management, central office personnel assume new roles as experts and brokers in staff development. The article examines the impact of decentralization and staff development, focusing on how central office personnel must relearn how to do business, preparing central office staff, and the role of staff…

In "Board of Education of Boone County v. Bushee," the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld school site councils' power and autonomy in a dispute involving a school improvement plan. Implications of "Bushee" are enormous. School-based decision making presents school business administrators with brave new challenges and increased…

This paper presents educational collaboration as a structured process and interactive relationship among individuals that focuses on multiple outcomes in a school's organizational structures. The paper describes characteristics of a collaborative school and the professional behaviors that support collaboration; outlines strategies that facilitate…

Suggests that the constitution or structure of schools should be democratic to foster democracy. Discusses the value of parents' voices in decision making, but warns of the tendency toward bureaucracy. Argues that structural indexes must be formulated so that they can be transformed into instructional processes by a coupling of…

This article highlights components of educational reform currently underway in Kentucky, with emphasis on implications for gifted black students. Addressed are school system structural changes, authentic assessment, the primary preschool program, extended school services, Family Resource and Youth Services Centers, and site-based decision making.…

Although devolution (decentralization) policies assume that school communities will work collaboratively to make decisions appropriate to the local context, cooperative processes do not occur automatically. This paper outlines a case study of a school committee's efforts to develop a discipline policy at an Australian elementary school. Committee…

In England, vast amounts of energy are being spent on changing organizational structures and school financing systems to produce a market accountability on the schools. Raises a series of questions that should be considered in restructuring efforts in the United States. (MLF)

Japanese school management should consider more broad-based, active participation in school board policymaking and should democratize school board-school relationships by adopting the lay-control principle. Both U.S. and Japanese schools should improve the exercise of appropriate administrator leadership. Japanese schools are evaluated on a…

Introducing a wider perspective of evaluation into the school by developing school-based evaluation mechanisms is discussed. The approach is based on conceptual development derived from U.S. perspectives on program evaluation, actual work in schools with teachers and principals in Israel, and empirical studies in the United States. (SLD)

A survey of 290 South Dakota superintendents, principals, and school board presidents examined personal, interpersonal, and institutional barriers to school-based management. Most school administrators, but not school board presidents, were skeptical about changing the management of school districts and implementing school-based management. (LP)

School principals are in a difficult environment filled with stress and plagued by weak support. Most principals are unprepared for site-based decision making. University professors must take the initiative to use the emerging knowledge base and develop professional studies degree and staff development programs to prepare principals. (24…

Reviews "Politics, Markets and America's Schools" by John Chubb and Terry Moe. Argues that, although a new conceptual framework for public education is needed, a free market system is not the only, nor the best, alternative. Proposes exploring the model of partnership, making education a shared responsibility of home, school, and community. (CJS)

The positive and negative elements of six educational reforms are discussed: search for excellence; cooperative learning; middle schools; master teacher certification; site-based management; and accountability. Gifted educators are urged to promote these reform movements for the maximum benefit of all. (Author/JDD)

Attitudes of 81 principals in 4 urban school districts were surveyed to determine the importance they placed on common criteria for teacher selection, perceptions of the assessability of these criteria, and relationships between importance and assessability. High levels of agreement about criteria are discussed. (SLD)