Reports research findings on efforts to reform large urban high schools by creating smaller learning communities: Size matters, but quality matters more; small schools should be created, not imposed; small school need to be accountable. Argues that given these elements, smaller learning communities will significantly improve achievement for all…

Increases in teacher workload, deemed an undesirable site-based management consequence, is partly attributable to teachers' organizing skills. A New Zealand case study shows how secondary teachers attempting to improve minority student achievement unintentionally created workload pressures by developing parallel problem-solving structures and…

Argues that school systems are so centralized that they waste money on bureaucratic operations and lack the capacity to respond rapidly to changing circumstances. A study of nine school systems that vary dramatically in their degree of decentralization demonstrates that true decentralization yields benefits in both efficiency and performance. (MLF)

Teachers' lives and teachers' work remain important areas of educational research today, particularly given the influence of school-based management and the significance of shared leadership in schools. Almost nowhere do the two research fields intersect more closely than in the remote school setting, where teacher turnover is high and the…

This article examines principals' espoused values and their values in action. It provides a reanalysis of previously collected data through a values lens. The original research study was an international quantitative and qualitative investigation of principals' leadership approaches that was based in 15 schools. This particular excerpt of the…

The federal government is devoting millions of dollars to charter and voucher programs that currently require parents to abandon regular public schools. The goal of the authors of The School Choice Hoax is to expose the misleading hyperbole that has been driving the school choice movement and to show how charter schools can become more effective…

This paper adopts a qualitative approach to study the perceptions of six secondary teachers from two schools with a similar background and history of school-based management (SBM). The study aims to explore the views of the teachers in the following areas: changes in school administration and the structure of the school under SBM; changes in the…

In 1989, seven Memphis City Schools (MCS) implemented school-based decision making (SBDM). This paper describes outcomes associated with shared decision-making efforts during the pilot-study years (1989-92) and following years. Data were obtained from participant observation, interviews, administration of The Tennessee School Climate Inventory…

This paper presents findings of a study that explored effective school-based budgeting practices within effective school-based management (SBM) contexts. The sample was comprised of 18 schools across 9 school districts (7 in the United States, 1 Canadian, and 1 Australian)--that had used SBM to improve school performance. During onsite visits,…

If fundamental change in education is to be lasting and effective, it must be a systemic transformation that pervades all aspects of the organization. The New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) mission requires rapid, comprehensive change. The Community Learning Centers program described in this document features systemic change with…

Each year 2.5 million Danes participate in government funded educational activities. The government's aim is to ensure high educational standards. Government policy gives a high priority to courses promoting technological expansion and competitiveness in export markets. Vocational education tends toward trades with favorable job prospects.…

Information is provided in this directory about 256 schools working with the school-based-management process, "Onward to Excellence" (OTE), to improve student performance. This directory provides information about recently trained OTE schools and about those longer term OTE Schools not profiled in last year's directory. Each entry…

This report presents findings from a study of school-based instructional decision making (SBIDM) and the regional staff development centers for SBIDM in Maryland. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and a group process adapted from storyboarding. Informants included school-improvement teams, principals, other faculty in seven…

The Tennessee education system has slowly introduced school-based management (SBM) or site based decision making (SBDM). This paper presents findings of a study that investigated Tennessee educators' perceptions of responsibility for teacher hiring. Data were obtained from a survey of 197 teachers, 22 principals, 13 district administrators, and 22…

The successful implementation of site-based management (SBM) requires time and changes in the role expectations among all members of the school community. Because needs and achievement levels differ among schools, there is no one best way to implement SBM. Schools are better off developing their own self-starting, working models. This paper…