In 1989, the Austin Independent School District's Office of Research and Evaluation was directed to monitor the automation of personnel information and processes in the district's Department of Personnel. Earlier, a study committee appointed by the Superintendent during the 1988-89 school year identified issues related to Personnel Department…

A significant body of research from business and industry has generally confirmed the contribution of participative decision-making to improved organizational effectiveness and employee morale. Following a literature review, this paper explores the implementation of shared decision-making in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Public Schools. The…

The strategies for school based management and shared decision making are seldom studied together. A written survey administered to practitioners currently using one or both of the strategies provides information for the implementation of shared decision making. Methodological limitations include a sample of 230 site personnel with a response rate…

Klein's conceptual framework of curriculum decision making is applied to the site-based decision making process in a suburban California school district. The model is composed of two interacting dimensions: participants at different levels and curriculum elements. Three levels of decision making--formal, institutional, and instructional--are…

Information for administrators and teachers about the requirements, responsibilities, and timelines for educational accountability in Colorado is presented in this report. The accountability program emphasizes public disclosure of a school's educational outcomes, community-involved school planning, and local autonomy. Contents provide information…

This study analyzes local school council (LSC) meetings in Chicago (Illinois) during their first year of operation. The Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 created a radical shift in authority from the central bureaucracy to the LSCs, empowering the LSCs to set educational policy and govern schools. The councils hire and evaluate the principal,…

Current reform efforts, focusing on teacher empowerment, are based on the belief that lasting school improvement will occur when teachers become more involved in professional decision-making at the school site. Presented in this document are four conceptually distinct models of teacher involvement in schoolwide decision-making, identified on the…

This paper explores some definitions of school-based budgeting and other forms of decentralization, attempts to determine the extent of their adoption, develops some indications of decentralization results, and provides suggestions for further research directions. The paper addresses (1) how often decentralization involving a change in resource…

Articulation for Career Education (ACE) is a project designed by the Department of Career Education to continue and expand the Articulated School-Based Management Plan (ASBMP) begun in 1981. A total sum of $57,966 in Education Consolidation Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter II funds were granted for the first year of this proposed 24 month project of…

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire distributed to all Philadelphia secondary school principals (with returns from 68 percent), eliciting their reactions to various aspects of the transfer to them of line authority for building engineers. Responses indicate that the process of assuming supervisory responsibility was not yet complete,…

School performance measures developed by a public management institute have improved learning, confidence, cost effectiveness, teamwork, and accountability among students and teachers in Illinois districts. A model measures learning, parent and teacher satisfaction, and cost. Zion, Lake Forest, and North Chicago districts made substantial gains…

The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are attempting to secure a role for teachers in decision making at the building level. Talks between the two unions at the state and local levels are aimed at increasing teachers' overall political clout. (MLF)

School culture emerges from educational research as the most critical theme for changing secondary schools. Educational problem solving to change school culture must be carried out in individual school buildings rather than at centralized locations. The district offices must aid this site authority with moral support and technical assistance. (VM)

It is unrealistic to expect principals to be both good managers and effective instructional leaders. The latter role is best filled from within the ranks of teachers. (Author/LHW)

The City School is a K-8 magnet school in Lowell, Massachusetts. Student, teacher, and parent participation in the school's curriculum and governance have resulted in a strong sense of ownership and an effective and exciting educational environment. (GC)