Under the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) is the provision that creates school councils and delegates to them the authority to make important educational decisions to improve student performance. This paper describes findings from the third year of a 5-year study of SBDM that focused on early examples of…

Decentralization has been one of the centerpieces of education reform in the United States over the past decade, yet the results so far are not encouraging. This booklet presents findings of a study that explored the hypothesis that decentralization efforts have failed to relax external constraints on schools or to enable school staffs to make…

School-based management refers to a form of educational administration in which the school becomes the primary unit for decision-making. The book is structured into five parts. In part 1, international developments in school-based decision-making and management are documented and analyzed. Described are developments in Australia, Canada, France,…

This paper argues that many site-based management practices do not represent true empowerment and are not founded on a consensual framework of values, goals, and priorities developed by educational stakeholders. In addition, they often lack clearly stated operating principles. The paper distinguishes between site-based management (SBM) and…

State legislative policies for educational restructuring are examined in this handbook, with a focus on restructuring from the perspective of state elected officials. Following an executive summary and introduction, the second and third parts explain the need for restructuring and features of the restructuring movement. Problems and obstacles are…

School based decision making (SBDM) has become one of the of hottest issues in education today. In SBDM the local governing body consists of parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators responsible for the legislative duties of running their school. Since most decision-making programs are geared for use in business settings…

School-based management (SBM) varies from school to school but generally involves giving educators, parents, and community members increased responsibility over educational decision making. The "Schools and Staffing Survey" provides information on where decisions are made for three SBM areas: establishing curriculum, hiring new full-time…

Site-based management, decentralization of decision making to the school level, is a major component of restructuring the American educational system. However, despite the attention site-based management has received, many states and school districts have been slow to implement it. One reason for this failure could be the ability and willingness…

Teacher participation in school decision making, often called participative or collaborative decision making, continues to be of significant interest in education research. Much of the discussion of collaborative decision making has centered on its claimed advantages. Research also has examined the economic, political, social, and cultural…

In 1988, two metropolitan and four country schools (two of which were remote) in Australia received federal grants to implement technology education. This paper presents the outcomes of the six schools' attempts to implement curriculum innovations associated with technology education and interprets those outcomes in the context of a school-based…

Findings of a study that examined the perceived effects of school-based decision making (SBDM) on school curriculum, particularly vocational education, and decision-making processes are presented in this document. Sixty-nine secondary schools in Kentucky participated in SBDM during the 1991-92 school year. Data were obtained from a survey mailed…

This paper describes the process undertaken by the Meneley Elementary School in Douglas County, Nevada, to develop a plan for shared governance. In 1989, the school became a participant in the Nevada School Improvement Project (SIP). The new governance plan established a Decision Making Council (DMC), composed of representatives from each grade…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the role principals play as schools institute democratic governance structures. During 2.5 years, data were collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis at six schools engaged in a shared decision-making (SDM) project. Findings suggest that for principals to foster SDM in…

School-based management has been a key element of education reform in the United Kingdom. Under Local Management of Schools (LMS), individual schools are given broad power over management of school budgets and most aspects of personnel and buildings. Two factors influence the transition to greater local control of schools. First, parental choice…

This paper attempts to blend the literature on professionalism with the literature of community, thus positing a framework for a school-based professional community. Sociologists have long distinguished between occupations--even high status ones--and professions. Among the key distinctions of professionalism are: a technical knowledge base shared…