This report presents the preliminary findings of the District/Secondary School Study. The study had two purposes: (1) to identify ways of managing urban high schools to produce excellence, and (2) to recommend policy-relevant guidance to existing school and district administrators. The study design focused on the testing of two specific theories for managing schools: school effectiveness theory and organizational excellence theory. On the basis of preliminary results, the report tentatively concludes that schools are more amenable to management initiatives than originally thought. In addition, there are indications that the sources of managerial initiative are much more diverse and complex than the single organization implicit in the school effectiveness or managerial excellence theories, both of which tend to treat the school as the sole source of managerial control over itself. In contrast, a degree of collaboration has been found which suggests a pattern in which schools and districts "co-manage" the school in specific ways that produce desirable outcomes. (RDN)