Defines the principal's role as educational leader. Shows how the status of principals and the bureaucracy of public schools in Canada limit the principal's role. Explains the Canadian school budgeting process and its disadvantages. Suggests that school-based management can overcome educational centralization. (SB)

To better meet the needs of a technologically changing workplace and large, diverse and mobile population, the West Virginia State Plan for the Administration of Vocational and Technical Education requires local education associations to utilize program advisory committees as a key source of input for program review and curriculum update.…

This paper is for policymakers, advocates, and analysts who understand that the issues surrounding the introduction of more market-based mechanisms into education are complex and who accept the view that evidence is useful in sorting out the issues. It uses the market framework of demand, supply, and market pricing to organize the extensive but…

This publication offers school counselors and school staff a 5-phase planning model for implementing national standards for school counseling programs. The process involves the examination of current school counseling programs; identification of student needs; and selection of activities, strategies, and services to ensure that students achieve…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 mandates radical changes in curriculum, finances, and governance for all Kentucky schools and requires that all schools implement school-based decision making (SBDM). SBDM involves a cooperative problem solving approach to operational decisions. New York's Johnson City school district developed an…

This paper describes conditions and processes involved in implementing school-based decision making (SBDM), examining an outcomes-driven developmental model (ODDM) and describing the training components within Springfield, Missouri's and Kentucky's strategic plans. The Springfield Board of Education approved a plan to guide a schoolwide community…

Focuses on behaviors and activities of three high school principals as they respond to district's decision to implement a shared decision-making model designed to give teachers and parents a larger voice. Describes these administrators' varying responses, along with varied ways democratic leadership was multilaterally defined in each school by…

Offers an overview of the school-based decision-making councils in the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 and takes a brief look at a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the authority of councils. (MLF)

Describes budgetary authority at the federal, state, school district, and school site levels, discussing spending patterns and reviewing research on site-based management. In spite of great differences among districts, most are remarkably similar in allotting 60% to 63% of their budgets to instruction and dividing the rest among student services…

Analyzes the School Autonomy Project in Israel (1988-92) in the light of the theoretical literature on school-university partnership, as an example of academe/practitioner exchange. This project was a major innovation in a country with a highly centralized educational system. Such partnerships must include the highest field level (supervisors and…

This article describes how the Clark County School District in Las Vegas was reorganized to provide a greater emphasis on site-based management and a responsive centralized support system. Central to the reorganization was the development of a single division to support students with special needs. Barriers to collaboration are discussed. (CR)

Examines the extent to which corporatist political theory explains recent educational reforms in Norway (strong corporatist state) and the United Kingdom (weak corporatist state). Focuses on shifts toward centralized or decentralized control; public versus private sponsorship of schools; and teacher autonomy and school-based management. Contains…

Forecasts the items unions will bring to the bargaining table to launch their labor-management relationship and membership into the twenty-first century. The future will require greater cooperation and a closer working relationship between the school systems and unions. (MLF)

Reviews strategies used in the Columbus (Ohio) public schools to ensure that central office staff would be effective and supportive in implementing systemic reform. The implementation of the Effective Schools Process in the schools created a shift in the decision-making locus from the central office to local school sites. (SM)

Presents a case study of the impact of rapid educational policy change toward self-management on two small rural schools and their communities in Victoria (Australia). Suggests that self-management requires strong community support, and the quality of this support is directly related to a sense of autonomy and ownership. Community support is…