Intended as a guide for educators in shared decision-making, this report summarizes the structures, procedures, and activities of local action teams in 49 schools involved in the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. Local action teams in the RDU program consisted of formal groups of teachers and…

Research of 25 Michigan elementary and secondary public schools is used to test a model relating organizations' problem-solving adequacy to their available inputs or resources and to the appropriateness of their structures. Problems that all organizations must solve, to avoid disorganization or entropy, include (1) getting inputs and producing…

Efforts to change the role of principals over the past 30 years typically reflect a leader-centrist perspective of schools illustrated by the metaphors of a marching band or the slightly less hierarchical classical orchestra. In these conceptual systems, policy (score) is generated (composed) by policymaking bodies (composers) with principals…