The two reform orientations termed "hard" and "soft" policy do not represent a set of mutually exclusive choices for policymakers. Bureaucratically and professionally based decision-making approaches must coexist in schools and school districts. The dual policy approach necessitates a rethinking of administrative posture and gives shape to a…

After delineating wider context of Coalition of Essential Schools restructuring in Illinois, paper explores principal's changing role in four schools immersed in restructuring process. Factors inhibiting role changes in shared governance system were lack of stability, support, trust, and commitment. Factors promoting change were new conceptions of…