Proponents of school restructuring often promote the purported benefits of professional forms of management that call for staff cooperation and collegiality, teachers' participation in school decision making, and supportive leadership by school principals. A theoretical perspective on organizations known as contingency theory refers to such…

The implementation of a shared decision making (SDM) project in a large public secondary school was studied for three years. Factors that enhanced the SDM process were the confidence stakeholders had in themselves, resource availability, creation of democratic rules and procedures, early and concrete accomplishments, and the principal's support.…

Educators often ignore the political requirements of urban reform in their focus on the research and models that guide it. Conversely, political scientists frequently miss the differences among reforms in their focus on coalitions and resources. Integrating Clarence N. Stone's concept of "civic capacity" with an educator's view of reform…