A decentralized administrative environment can help ensure the effective allocation of resources through particpative decision making. The decentralized structure at Washburn University is described along with how it helps integrate the planning and budgeting process and the effectiveness of the resulting resource allocations. (MLW)

Decentralization has been one of the centerpieces of education reform in the United States over the past decade, yet the results so far are not encouraging. This booklet presents findings of a study that explored the hypothesis that decentralization efforts have failed to relax external constraints on schools or to enable school staffs to make…

A detailed analysis of how and why school-based curriculum development (SBCD) occurs is provided in this book. Case studies from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States are presented to show that despite different contexts, common patterns exist, especially in terms of participant motivation and processes. An innovations…

In the Fifth Five Year Plan, the Indian Planning Commission recommended "democratic decentralization" to help remove disparities at the local level. Priorities were to be adult literacy and universal elementary education, with emphasis on adopting a multilevel approach to educational planning. The idea was to provide action plans at the…

The process for establishing a climate and a framework that promote school-based reform is complex. Describes the steps a typical but fictitious district takes to build support for change. (MLF)

This paper describes outcomes of a partnership between the Rochester City School District (New York) and the Kodak 21st Century Learning Challenge consulting program for improving school-based planning team (S-BPT) operations. The purpose of the school-based planning team is to involve the entire school community in improving school effectiveness.…

Considers village and district councillors' role in educational decision making, focusing on the "Pukhun maliks" and tribal chiefs in northwestern Pakistan's frontier's tribal areas. In this case study, the notion of community involvement in development planning is actually entrenching the people's powerlessness. (17 references) (MLH)

Case studies of school-based curriculum development (SBCD) were analyzed. The process of SBCD, including planning, implementation, evaluation, and teacher professionalism, is discussed. So that future researchers can use the historian's method on a good range of cases dealing with SBCE, a national case study archive is needed. (RM)

Utilizes data from a four-year longitudinal study of two suburban school districts to explore obstacles to implementation of school based management (SBM) at the school district and building levels. Examines delegation of authority, functioning of site councils, and program advocacy. (FMW)

Many educators advocate school-based management, a method of decentralization wherein the school, instead of the district office, becomes the primary unit of educational decision-making. This shift is part of American education's long-term oscillation between administrative centralization and decentralization. Centralization, say its critics, has…

Although devolution (decentralization) policies assume that school communities will work collaboratively to make decisions appropriate to the local context, cooperative processes do not occur automatically. This paper outlines a case study of a school committee's efforts to develop a discipline policy at an Australian elementary school. Committee…

Analyzes teachers' and students' perceptions of how participants became empowered in shared governance schools belonging to the Georgia-based League of Professional Schools. Includes descriptions of principals' related leadership practices. Participants reported increased communication quality and frequency both horizontally and vertically.…

Summarizes a five-month study of a British secondary school governing body to determine whether the 1986 and 1988 education acts' goals were being achieved. One significant research issue was the emerging lay-professional relationship. At present, the school governing body is not fully exercising its powers but is responding to an externally…

Examines the emergence and early implementation stages of Queensland (Australia) Education Department's policy for devolving responsibility to state schools. Clarifies the department's rhetoric in developing and promoting its decentralization policy; examines policy efficacy at the "school face" level; explores possible policy outcomes,…

This study examined instructional leadership in eight diverse secondary schools in four urban, suburban, and small-city school districts in one western state. The aim was to gain access to a set of schools that provided both variety in instructional leadership and diversity in school size, organization, grade level, faculty and student…