Dynamic home-school-community partnerships established through site councils can help produce improved schools that serve their communities better. Parents on the council must be careful to represent diverse segments of the student body. Members need both proper orientation and a constitution to be effective. Includes three references. (MLH)

Although school-based management takes many forms, its essence is school level autonomy plus participatory decision-making. This article discusses implications for budget, staffing, curriculum, and beyond. The key is substituting participation for authority. A sidebar presents research highlights. Includes 26 references. (MLH)

Discusses the benefits of using devolved budget models in further education and the tensions that may arise from their introduction. Addresses resistance to the change and the cultural and management style prerequisites for successful implementation of devolved budgets. (EV)

By the year 2000, school decentralization could become another unfortunate, ineffectual pendulum swing. According to this article, a dynamic, ever-changing system of decentralization and centralization balances the benefits of local administrative autonomy with the pursuit of unified goals and helps each leadership level understand its…

Changes geared toward enhancing student success occurring in certain Miami, Minneapolis, and New York City schools capture the essence of educational restructuring. A complete overhaul of curriculum and instruction, authority and decision-making practices, staff roles, and accountability systems is necessary--especially in inner-city schools.…

As interest in school-based management grows and the number of efforts increases, the gap between the strategy's potential and its realization is being explored. Although school-based management may stimulate a redistribution of informal power or influence, there is little evidence that significant, long-lasting, or widespread changes are…

The concept of power, fundamental to understanding human interactions and institutions, remains puzzling, elusive, theoretically complex, and largely unexamined by practitioners. A school restructuring agenda that purportedly changes power relationships in schools is being proposed and tested throughout the country. Basic questions are being asked…

Argues that school boards were introduced and retained during the 19 foundational years of state education in New South Wales, Australia, not as token partners or mere money-raisers, but as integral parts of the school system. The successes of local participation in frontier conditions were sufficient to justify the board's encouragement of local…

The growing importance of shared decision making and decentralization is causing a reevaluation of skills required for the principalship. This study examined teacher and principal perceptions of skills required for principal effectiveness, using Katz's widely used taxonomy that classifies managerial skills as technical, human, and conceptual. Both…

As school-based management and collaborative decision making are implemented in the educational system, the superintendent's traditional "clockworks" role will undergo transformation. This article explores the necessary leadership characteristics and skills for assuming this new role. Superintendents must be instructional, transformative, and…

Site-based management (SBM) gives teachers, principals, and communities a method for directly affecting and improving their schools. This newsletter describes some of the advantages of SBM, which can result in greater accountability for student learning and an increased opportunity for parents, teachers, students, and business. The greatest…

School-based management/shared decision-making (SBM/SDM) in New York City rests on the conviction that schools can be improved by giving school professionals and parents the flexibility to develop local solutions for local problems. Accountability is critical to this approach; a school system cannot ask school staff to accept responsibility for…

School site management, a decentralized approach to decision-making and school governance, is intended to help parents and teachers share increased accountability for student learning and provide a broadened leadership base through teacher empowerment. This approach involves a shift of decision-making responsibility from the school district to…

The present confrontational labor/management negotiations model mitigates against the development of a higher form of teacher professionalism. Current union and school management models are highly centralized governance systems. Collaborative planning must be instituted in a collegial manner to be successful. (MLH)

Survey based on personal/interpersonal and institutional barriers to site-based management identified by Mutchler and Duttweiler (1989) was sent to school board presidents and public school administrators in 54 centrally organized South Dakota districts. Majority of responding board presidents did not view these barriers as implementation…