Site-based management may be key to producing more effective middle schools. Recent survey showed SBM reforms not just individual schools, but whole school system. System of site-managed schools requires parental choice as ultimate accountability mechanism. Governance usually becomes the responsibility of school-based councils. SBM demands that…

The heads of 12 primary schools in an English country town were interviewed as part of a study examining market ideologies' influence on the management of small-service providers. Overall, despite the business/managerialism rhetoric, management-team governance, and changing administrator and local education authority (LEA) roles, principals felt…

Discusses a parental choice case involving a rural (British) school with a 13+ transfer age to determine parents' use of the open enrollment system, effects of transport policy on exercising parental choice, quality of information provided, and factors influencing choice. Transportation was problematic. Four choice factors stood out: teacher…

Includes "Introduction" (Chitty, Lawn); "Curriculum in New Zealand" (Jesson); "Curriculum Knowledge" (Cornbleth); "Promised Land" (Lima, Afonso); "Defining and Re-defining the Teacher in the Swedish Comprehensive School" (Kallos, Nilsson); "What's Happening to Teachers' Work in…

While central control can lead to bureaucracy and sclerosis, the local alternative can produce a wasteful duplication of effort. This paper analyzes how different levels of school autonomy affect costs across the United States. Results suggest there may be an optimal, cost-minimizing level of decentralized decision-making authority. Academic…

In 1992, the British government published new secondary-teacher training criteria that challenged schools and higher education institutions to develop courses meeting requirements for teacher involvement and funding within tight time and financial constraints. This paper discusses emerging policy issues, illustrating with the views of students,…

Surveyed 67 teachers from small school districts to determine their level of interest in being involved in decision-making activities associated with 15 selected principalship-type duties. Activities attracting the highest level of interest relate to the teacher and the classroom such as discipline, curriculum, parents, expenditures, and class…

During 3-year period, Arizona junior high school's site-based team developed and implemented 10-step process for becoming middle school. They assessed the school and community, researched school reform, built a team, developed a mission statement, set goals and empowered staff members, established teaching teams, trained staff members and parents,…

The important concepts undergirding school-based management are greater budgetary autonomy, district-level support for local school needs assessments and plans, allowed deviations from district normative expectations, better onsite decision-making opportunities, and a total district commitment to instructional and administrative excellence. In…

Explains the Republic of Belarus's new educational system, stressing its universal and democratic values, national-cultural foundation, scientific character, humanistic and ecological orientation, social and practical activities, encouragement of talent and erudition, and compulsory basic (nine-year) education focus. Describes types of educational…

Survey based on personal/interpersonal and institutional barriers to site-based management identified by Mutchler and Duttweiler (1989) was sent to school board presidents and public school administrators in 54 centrally organized South Dakota districts. Majority of responding board presidents did not view these barriers as implementation…

By directing the change from an MBO system to a building-based goal program, a Pennsylvania superintendent enabled each building's staff and community to focus on an individual area of need (environmental education), as determined by a grassroots needs assessment effort. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators gathered and analyzed data,…

Recounts a fictitious high school's steps to build support for whole school change. To create a framework for change, Farragut High developed a vision statement of organization characteristics and a profile of current school characteristics and assembled people to coordinate the change process. A hands-on leadership role for the principal was…

A middle school in River Falls, Wisconsin, exemplifies middle-level philosophy by providing individualized learning programs, a core curriculum, a guidance program, education for citizenship, and cocurricular activities. The school program emphasizes enhanced exploratory learning opportunities, team-teaching of core subjects, and a…

Summarizes results of an in-depth study of 25 elementary and middle schools in 11 districts in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Some schools were actively restructuring; others were going through the motions of school-based management with little instructional change. The most successful SBM plans were those that empowered new decision…