With the advent of large interest in school-based management came the task of inventing a different type of budgeting system--one that delegated the many tasks of developing a budget, expending the allocated funds, and controlling those expenditures in a way that did not exceed the allocation to the site level. This book explores the various means…

Well-developed models exist for the creation of multischool networks to promote the replication of effective practices beyond a single school. These networks are found in the Catholic schools. These networks are excellent models for the effective linkage of schools serving students of different socioeconomic and cultural groups in widely separated…

This paper addresses briefly the responsibilities which site-based decision-making (S-B D-M) imply and presents the many opportunities to innovate collaboratively as a way to achieve greater professionalism. Texas' Senate Bill 1 (199) and House Bill 2885 (1991) set into motion two important aspects of educational reform, the decentralization of…

This book describes the creation of new, small, (strictly) public, and relatively autonomous schools that can be chosen by parents, students, and teachers located in Boston and New York City. These schools can be seen as the forerunners of an entirely new and much more democratic American public school system which attempts to achieve genuine…

This guide's 11 sections are: "Evolution of Whole School Reform (WSR) in New Jersey"; "Department of Education Organizational Structure in Support of Urban Education Reform"; "Whole School Reform Regulations"; "School Management Teams: Leading the Process"; "Becoming a Whole School Reform School";…

This report reviews implementation of Phase 1 of the New York City Board of Education's Performance Driven Budgeting (PDB) initiative from 1997-00. This initiative generated a new element in school-based planning for instructional improvement, explicitly linking school-level budgeting and efforts to improve student and school performance. The…

This paper reports on a study of site-level resource managers in schools. The paper brings together experiences of the United Kingdom and the United States educational systems to explore issues of educational resource management at the school-site level. The paper focuses on the role of the bursar, the term used in the U.K. to describe a senior…

This report contains collective data on Hawaii's schools, showing trends over time and, where appropriate, comparisons with data from other states. It includes data from 246 public schools and 7 school districts for the 1996-97 school year. In 1996-97, enrollment growth, which had exceeded 1.5% for 5 years, declined sharply to 1%. Dropout rates…

This paper discusses the Collaborative Action Team (CAT) process, which was initiated by the U.S. Department of Education, and which encourages the development of partnerships among families, community members, school personnel, and students in communities with histories of ongoing and underserved needs. CAT is based on a set of core principles…

Describes the budget models and guidelines of the schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which are designed to provide consistency among the schools and to enable the schools to operate on sound business principles. Discusses the process' key components: policy development, budget calendar implementation, and budget preparation. (AJL)

The real-life drama 25 years ago when Apollo 13 was rescued through a collaborative team of colleagues provides a model for changes in many public schools. In Texas, the state code specifies that site-based decision making address planning, budgeting, curriculum staffing patterns, staff development, and school organization. (MLF)

Studies on Indonesia and the Philippines in this special issue examine how local financial control affects costs of providing primary schooling. In both countries, schools with greater financial decentralization operated more efficiently. These results have important implications for U.S. schools, where decentralization reforms in Kentucky and…

Data from an evaluation of the Annenberg Challenge in Los Angeles, a reform effort that experimented with school networks as a vehicle for improving schools, revealed that when school networks created structures that decentralized power and distributed organizational resources throughout the network, they also enhanced school capacity for reform.…

Discusses implications of adopting an online curriculum as part of a school's information-management system, using an outcomes-based education perspective. Describes a new generation of software tools to illustrate how curriculum alignment can be accomplished and applied to monitoring student performance. IMS technology should be integrated into…

This article discusses progress in the integration of the Victoria, Australia, school system following a 1984 ministerial review. Fundamental principles behind the effort such as school-based services and noncategorization of disabilities are reviewed along with resultant policies, structures, and services. Barriers to mainstreaming are identified…