This technical guide is a training tool to help members of Head Start governing bodies, policy groups, agency directors, and Head Start and Early Head Start directors understand their responsibilities in a Head Start environment that emphasizes shared decision-making. The guide offers a framework for clarifying expectations and provides concrete,…

This book examines school-based management and provides strategies to implement management changes. The 14 chapters examine the components of good schools, including clarity of purpose, leadership, professionalism, lack of bureaucratic control, competition, and choice. The text describes the components of school-based management and the need for…

In this paper the work of democratic theorists is applied to an analysis of democratic decision-making in a public high school. The article opens with a brief description of democratic decision-making as a school-reform strategy. The data for the study were collected in 1998 and 1999 and were based on 52 interviews with teachers, administrators,…

This document reports on a 1998 conference of some 30 parents, educators, social workers, advocates, physicians, nurses, and social scientists who met to develop an action plan for improving the quality of services and cultural competence of providers of services to children with special health care needs from diverse cultural backgrounds. The…

The article describes an approach used in organizing a large secondary school for leadership that emphasizes the importance of curriculum and instructional leadership. The lead author was the director of curriculum and instruction in the school. The principal utilized his position in linking the several organizational levels in the school in a…

Institutions of higher education and nonprofit, volunteer-dependent agencies have much in common but are also potential competitors for public and private support, media attention, volunteer energies, and clients. New partnerships must address four issues: organizations, personnel, curriculum, and learners. (MLW)

The expansion of school-based team functions is considered in terms of their use in providing consultation and technical assistance to instructional staff as well as for enhancing the functioning of the school as an organization. The functions range from the child to the school psychological services unit and reflect a systems orientation.…

This article delineates an organizational systems framework for exploring team utilization possibilities in schools and provides guidelines for deciding when and how teams might be utilized. (Author/PN)

Describes the successful use of the Delphi Dialog Technique (a goal-setting process) at East High School, Anchorage, Alaska, where it was used to obtain consensus among staff members about school-growth targets. (JW)

Describes the application by principals of situational leadership concepts to reduce conflict among groups participating in decision making. Factors covered include maturity levels of participants, flexibility of leadership style, and possible variations in conflict management strategies appropriate to different maturity levels of participants.…

Argues that service is better in libraries whose staff participate in management activities than in libraries run by authoritarian methods, and that staff educational diversity and adequate collection resources linked to a participative management style enhance staff satisfaction and, concomitantly, library performance. (RAA)

A survey of 601 managers and workers in 10 German manufacturing companies studied the implications of workers' participation for the exercise of control. Statistical analysis of data on control over work environments, production organization, personnel, and finance indicated that, in more participative companies, distribution of control is more…

Principals should allow teacher input into decision making in appropriate areas and be clear about exactly which areas these are. (JM)

A proposed equity model outlines a school-transformation process by questioning tacit cultural beliefs and pondering how education aims are realized in daily practice. The process honors best teaching practice and serves as a stepping-stone for inquiry into the outcomes, values, and criteria guiding curriculum and instruction decisions. Democratic…

Offers suggestions for enabling and enhancing self-determination skills during the transition planning process for high school students with severe disabilities. Suggestions include an emphasis on student participation in transition planning, student decision making about goals and needed services, and student evaluation of the acceptability of…