Findings from a study to determine the knowledge base among Kentucky superintendents about site-based management (SBM) are presented in this paper. Questionnaires mailed to all of the state's 177 public school superintendents yielded a 73 percent response rate. Findings indicate that while there was considerable interest in SBM, there was…

In 1990, the Leon County Public Schools (FL) implemented a voluntary school-based, decision-making (SBDM) council. This paper presents findings of an evaluation of the SBDM system in the school district conducted after 5 years of activity. Data were obtained from interviews with 61 principals and 34 site-council chairs and from a survey of 206 out…

This paper describes the process undertaken by the Meneley Elementary School in Douglas County, Nevada, to develop a plan for shared governance. In 1989, the school became a participant in the Nevada School Improvement Project (SIP). The new governance plan established a Decision Making Council (DMC), composed of representatives from each grade…

The current literature on school restructuring emphasizes cooperative learning, collaborative planning, teacher empowerment, and participative policy making. This literature tends to set aside client and technical perspectives and to exhibit a professional view, which deems accountability to be a politically incorrect issue. The literature on…

This research examines how department heads in (British) secondary schools perceive their management roles and their access to the real decision-making power that occurs outside departmental confines, but within schools. In structured interviews, 30 department heads from 21 schools were encouraged to reflect on opportunities for collegial…

In New Zealand the rhetoric of educational administration reform has claimed that local school management will lead to improvement in the areas of efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. In addition, the role of the school principal has been a significant site of contest and struggle. This paper presents findings of a ongoing ethnographic study…

Few of the empirical studies on school restructuring adequately describe the role of site teams in school reform. This paper addresses this gap, an analysis of what site teams do, how they are configured, and how they operate. This paper presents empirical measures of variables relating to the decision-making and communication practices engaged in…

Findings of a study that explored the extent of knowledge and use of school-based management concepts by faculty, graduate students, and school administrators are presented in this paper. Nationwide data were obtained from surveys that were returned by 63 professors of educational administration, 82 principals, and 216 graduate students in…

This study surveyed teacher's attitudes toward participatory decision making activity. The trend toward school-based management raises the question of whether or not teachers actually want to be involved in management of their schools. Sixty-seven teachers, from small schools taking graduate courses during the 1991 summer session at the Central…

Klein's conceptual framework of curriculum decision making is applied to the site-based decision making process in a suburban California school district. The model is composed of two interacting dimensions: participants at different levels and curriculum elements. Three levels of decision making--formal, institutional, and instructional--are…

Theoretically, schools that practice school-based management (SBM) should be more effective. However, researchers do not agree whether the effects of SBM are negative or positive. This paper discusses how the practice of a self-management framework (in which key actors practice self-management cycles at the school, group, and teacher levels) could…

This paper examines the current state of parental involvement in site-based management (SBM) councils. It defines SBM as a formal alteration of the governance structure and as a form of decentralization that identifies the school as the primary unit of improvement. To assess SBM councils, surveys were mailed to 600 principals representing urban,…

The adoption of a school-based management/shared decision-making administrative process (SBM/SDM) was recommended for the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) school district in June 1990. Findings of a study that determined the attitudes of three non-Chapter 1 elementary school communities in Philadelphia toward the adoption of SBM/SDM are presented in…

The STEPPES Project (Strengthening Planning and Management Capabilities in the Educational Sector) is a 4-year staff training effort of the Bureau of Planning in Indonesia's Ministry of Education and Culture. The project's overall objective is to achieve an effective capacity at the provincial level for planning and managing educational policies…

Parent participation in educational decision making is not a neural concept. When successful it can bring more effective decisions, a satisfied supportive public, and a stronger democracy. When it fails, it can leave in its wake a dissatisfied public. This research project involved observations of committee meetings and interviews with six parent…