Rural schools present unique challenges for school administrators, challenges that require knowledge of various skills in a range of disciplines. This book touches nearly every aspect of rural school leadership. It aims to help educational leaders in small or rural schools better understand their role, and to help all educators learn elements of…

Second-year outcomes of the Oregon School Improvement and Professional Development Project, which included 54 new and 32 continuing program sites, are presented in this report. Interviews with 187 staff members from 24 sites generated information on program impacts on goal development, assessment activities, school-based management, and…

This document describes school-based management (SBM) and examines one urban elementary school's experiences in developing a SBM plan. School issues that gave rise to interest in SBM and problems encountered by those involved in the planning process are analyzed. Two administrators, three teachers, and two parents, who were involved in the early…

A study was done on the effect of site-based management (SBM) and change on the role of principals in a large urban school district in the mid-western United States. The study used a distillation of the perceptions reported by building principals faced with the implementation of SBM, a concept of transactional and transformational leadership, and…

Both business and education leaders have come to view their alliance as the way to educate America's youth to meet society's needs. Because successful businesses are flexible and adaptable, business leaders can work with school boards in changes promoted by the current school reform movement. Board members need to work with business to identify…

A survey was done to evaluate the impact of local school councils on Chicago (Illinois) Public School reform efforts and to share those findings with the local schools. Nearly 700 council members responded to the survey. Major findings indicate the following: (1) councils have organized themselves, evaluated their principals, and participated in…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is giving 82 public schools around the state a chance to show what they can do to improve student achievement through reduced state regulation and increased flexibility. The project referred to as the Partnership Schools Initiative teams local school campuses with regional education services and the TEA for a 3-5…

This document presents findings of a nationwide study that examined the extent to which American high schools are implementing various restructuring activities. A survey mailed to principals in all of the nation's 10,365 regionally accredited public and private high schools elicited a 33 percent response rate. Seven indicators of major school…

This publication contains three papers originally presented at the 1991 convention of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), which examine the changing professoriate in educational administration. In "The Creation of Constructive Conflict Within Educational Administration Departments," Walter H. Gmelch discusses the issues…

The thought of shared leadership offers teachers a vision of more control of central issues of concern, opportunities for significant decision making, and the development of a more democratic environment. This paper presents an account of the success and frustrations encountered by an elementary school throughout an 18-month period of school-based…

This document contains the Virginia Beach superintendent's report to the school board on the adoption of a resolution that supports school-based management (SBM) and shared decision making. On December 17, 1991, the school board passed the "Resolution of Support for School Based Management and Shared Decision Making." The report contains…

Given that current redefinition of the principalship emphasizes instructional leadership, this document begins with a summary of previous research findings on effective school characteristics related to school improvement planning, program development, staff development, school assessment, and organizational culture with emphasis throughout on the…

In the United States today, policymakers and citizens believe that the quality of their schools must be improved. Reform policies and strategies are the focus of the first section of this report. The four areas identified are the perception and interpretation of the problems of quality, the methods of preparing reform or ad hoc measures, the main…

School Based Decision Making (SBDM) was implemented in two secondary, two junior high, and three elementary schools in the Memphis City School System in Tennessee during the 1989-90 school year. The implementation process of that first year and the roles of the persons involved are discussed as well as the use of the Tennessee School Climate…

Preliminary findings of a study that matched the theoretical concept of facilitative power with the activities of principals and teachers involved in site-based management are presented in this paper. Purposes of the study included: (1) the development of more precise definitions of the concepts of restructuring and site-based management; (2) a…