The article examines four basic elements of staff development needed to manage the changes in educational systems today and in the future: multidimensional professional development for all staff, decentralized performance-based systems, understanding and implementing the change process, and the changing role of the staff developer. (SM)

Participatory decision making can meld individual teacher goals into shared organizational goals that emphasize benefits for students. The article examines site-based management, organizational prerequisites, central office responsibilities, organizational culture, appropriate use of participation, decision-making strategies, and five obstacles to…

Reports current ideas from the general organizational productivity literature to provide a broader context for restructuring schools. The article discusses work culture patterns (involving schoolwide planning, professional development, program development, and school assessment) and describes how to manage productive schools, presenting…

With decentralization and school-based management, central office personnel assume new roles as experts and brokers in staff development. The article examines the impact of decentralization and staff development, focusing on how central office personnel must relearn how to do business, preparing central office staff, and the role of staff…

A school district planned and implemented site-based management. Schools developed ad hoc committees (AHCs) and created school management teams and plans. The AHCs effectively allowed school faculties to have input and involvement in developing management plans. The more they employed team building, the greater the impact on intended outcomes. (SM)

Staff developers used data-gathering tools to help one high school community deal with decision making for improving programs, organizational climate, and student learning. The school/university collaboration involved collecting data about how the organization and the people within it worked, then using the data to change the organization. (SM)

Reviews strategies used in the Columbus (Ohio) public schools to ensure that central office staff would be effective and supportive in implementing systemic reform. The implementation of the Effective Schools Process in the schools created a shift in the decision-making locus from the central office to local school sites. (SM)