For teachers engaged in the process of policy change, the way that they interpret policy and translate it into their daily practices will influence the implementation and the effects of a policy shift. Thus, it is important and necessary to examine educational decentralization policies from the local perspective, for the ways in which teachers understand and interpret the policy changes will have a direct impact on their implementation. China has been implementing educational decentralization for the last 2 decades. However, research on educational decentralization in China has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This study attempts to take a close look at how teachers from seven schools in Guangdong Province viewed and interpreted educational decentralization, focusing on whether it resulted in an increase of participative decision-making power of teachers in school matters. It presents teachers' perceptions about their participative decision-making power in school matters. The study consists of 70 interviewees who worked in seven schools located at Guangzhou, Panyu, Shenzhen, and Conghua, all of which are in urban areas of Guangdong Province in China. This study shows that educational decentralization in Guangdong, at this current stage, has been simply ornamental. The rationale behind such a policy shift seems to promote a sense of "strong bureaucracy, weak profession" school management style, rather than enhance professional growth of teachers through offering them a high-involvement working context. That is, the state education policy transfers fiscal responsibilities and certain aspects of managing tasks to subordinate educational stakeholders in an attempt to improve system effectiveness. (Contains 2 tables.)