Schools have been intractable to change and the attainment of goals set by reformers. A major failure has been the inability of reformers to confront this intractability. As a result, each new wave of reform learns nothing from earlier efforts and comes up with recommendations that have failed in the past. Nine chapters explore why reform efforts…

Site-based management (SBM) is an increasingly popular approach to school restructuring. SBM aims to transfer authority from state agencies and school districts to committees based at schools. To garner a consensus supporting reform, these committees are to be representative of educational and community members. SBM plans are characterized by: (1)…

The formation of hypotheses and generation of a theory to explain and predict the outcomes of educational reforms based on the concept of school reform cycles is the purpose of this paper. Two complementary hypotheses are proposed to explain the success or failure of educational reforms. The first hypothesis is based on an inverse relationship…

Recent changes in and issues related to political authority and educational policy, specifically, decentralization and school responsibility, are examined in this paper. The following concerns are discussed: new administrative structures for states and municipalities; allocation of block grants; political and professional control of goals,…

This paper examines the relationship between demands for site-based management and restructuring as they bear on recent theory and research on power in organizations. It also defines and describes the new face of power in the schools--facilitative power, power exercised through, rather than over, subordinates. The bulk of the paper consists of an…

This book points to the need to attend to ever-present inequalities of education in the light of new political correctness, technology, and curricula. Following the introduction, chapter 1 offers a review of neoconservative, liberal humanist, and radical theories of education. Chapter 2 suggests that one way to rethink and restructure the nature…

Reviews five dimensions (focus, scope, structure, process, and capacity) of an organizational design used by 20 New York districts planning for site-based management (SBM) implementation. The confusion surrounding devolution of decision making hinders districts' efforts to effect changes in intermediate variables (job satisfaction and staff…