This report contains recommendations made by the Arizona Committee on Decentralization, who identified issues in the implementation of decentralization in Arizona's public schools. The report presents an overview of the definition and purposes of decentralization and findings of a survey of 4,100 Arizona public school teachers and principals…

This paper describes the history of education reform in Washington State since the early 1980s. Specifically, the paper traces the educational system's transition to one based on performance and student learning. During the 1980s, education reform measures in Washington were targeted at segments of the system, rather than at the whole system. In…

Evidence suggests that school focused staff development programs are more likely to bring about real school improvement because the individual school is the primary unit of change. These guidelines for the development and implementation of school-focused delivery of staff development programs were prepared for Georgia school systems. The term…

The author kept a journal during the year he worked to establish a Division of Accountability for the Akron, Ohio, public schools system. Trenta had been the chief personnel officer for the school system with supervisory responsibility for the Department of Research and Evaluation. This journal begins in October 1991. At the time, the school…

The Indonesian school principal is a highly respected individual who serves as the critical link between the school and the community as well as local and national authorities. While most principals are well educated and capable, their positions are too limited. Most principals simply implement educational policy whereas they could and should be…

Outcomes of the School-Based Instructional Leadership (SBIL) program are described in this paper. The goal of the program is to empower school leadership teams (which include administrators, teachers, and representatives of stakeholder groups) for new roles and relationships as they implement a school-development process within their own contexts.…

This paper examines whether the Title I/Chapter 1 tradition of leading the way in educational evaluation will continue or whether Chapter 1 will change its role by delegating decision-making authority over evaluation methodology to state and local school systems. Whatever direction Chapter 1 takes, states, school systems, and schools must be held…

This document describes outcomes of the Arizona School Restructuring Pilot Project, implemented in Arizona in 1990. The project provided 11 elementary and 4 high schools, selected in a competitive grant process, with the opportunity to pilot their restructuring plans over a 4-year period (1990/91-1993/94). Data were obtained from a survey of key…

This paper describes the processes and outcomes experienced by the Marshalltown Community School District (Iowa) as it implemented a shared decision-making, school-improvement program. A district Shared Decision Making (SDM) Team and School Improvement Program (SIP) teams were trained to facilitate greater staff participation in the…

This paper examines teachers' perceptions of policy related to accountability and professional development in site-based management. The methodology included the development and administration of the Teacher Professional Development and Accountability Questionnaire. Dimensions in the questionnaire were derived from policy documents on…

This guide provides support for school jurisdictions and schools as they implement school-based decision-making (SBDM) for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. The intended users include school boards, school councils, school staffs, and central-office personnel who wish to create effective SBDM processes and policies, which focus on…

The 1994 and 1995 School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) Surveys were conducted in the fall of each of those years for the Study of Education Policy. This report compares the 1994 and 1995 responses to three questions: (1) What do people think of the effectiveness of SBDM? (2) Who is involved in the SBDM decisions? and (3) What are councils doing?…

The trend of teacher collegiality and professional development in educational restructuring is examined in this paper within the context of growing demands for accountability and productivity. The increased international interest in teacher collegiality through various forms of school-based professional development is viewed as a means of…

Under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires each elementary and secondary school to perform an inspection for asbestos-containing building material (ACBM) and to prepare an asbestos management plan. The AHERA regulations further require a reinspection of the ACBM at…

Issues raised by the devolution of decision-making to the school level in Western Australia are described in this paper. The first part provides a background of governance structures and school organization. Prior to 1980, Western Australia had the most centralized system of educational administration in Australia. The second part describes the…