This study examines restructuring from principals' perspectives. It explores restructuring as a "deal" between a district and individual schools, wherein the school receives greater autonomy over budgets, personnel, and school policies, in return for stricter accountability for results, usually defined in terms of student achievement.…

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…

While school-based management (SBM) is increasingly becoming a part of state and district reform efforts, there is little evidence that it improves school performance. However, this may be an unrealistic expectation for a governance-oriented reform. SBM also can improve organizational performance not only when people at lower levels are brought…

Early efforts at site-based decision making in Texas created many diverse questions about how to proceed. In some school districts, the change to a new decision-making balance centered around the district office. In others, strong campus control was established and effective self-governance plans were created. This monograph presents the…

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…

Written to help educators maximize student learning, this publication outlines a process for designing and implementing an improvement and restructuring plan based on knowledge acquisition, needs assessment, indepth planning, and development of commitment to change. Research has identified 14 conditions for successful schools: high attendance,…

In Colorado, a charter school is a public school operated by a group of parents, teachers, and/or community members as a semi-autonomous school of choice within a school district, operating under a contract between the charter school members and the local board of education. This publication provides information on the operation of charter schools…

In this book, eight contributors examine issues related to the likely effects of the decentralization of school governance on educational practice. Two major themes emerge in the book. The first (chapters 1 through 4) is that governance reforms in education may have little to do with what actually happens in schools, but have much to do with…

Following a preliminary discussion of school effectiveness, school-based management (SBM) elements, changing roles for school community members, and common implementation problems, this newsletter summarizes a research project testing one school district's readiness for implementing SBM. The project attempted to determine the knowledge,…

Focus groups are planned each year to gather regional needs assessment information on school restructuring as part of the Research for Better Schools (RBS) planning process. In spring 1991, RBS staff gathered rich, contextual data from five focus group discussions held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; the District of Columbia;…

School-based management and improvement, supported by parent and community involvement, offer the most promising route to lasting reform in the public schools. Following an extensive introduction (part I) outlining school-based management and improvement concepts, the effective schools connection, the Dade County (Florida) experience, and 10…

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Project (MRBP) is a school improvement effort implemented at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools during the 1990-91 school year. A total of 24 elementary school teachers, called visiting teachers, visited designated lab sites within the system for 2 weeks each to observe exemplary instructional programs and be…

Few studies of school effectiveness focus on curriculum management in secondary schools, especially schools situated in supportive socioeconomic environments. (Many studies have focused on poor, urban, elementary schools.) This paper reports the first part of a research project designed to investigate the link between curriculum and management…