Describes a multiyear formative evaluation of six Florida schools involved in the Shared Decision Making and Restructuring Project, highlighting one school's successful efforts. Ethnographic and interview data were used to examine work histories, verify achievements, and identify stumbling blocks. The successful school had a well-defined core…

First-year outcomes of a restructuring project in four Maryland middle schools are summarized in this paper, with a focus on new rules, roles, and relationships. Methodology involved interviews with 52 teachers and building administrators and 18 state department of education staff members; observation of school improvement teams; and document…

Changes in shared decision making as a result of the implementation of school-based management in the Dade County public school system are described in this report. Background information on the school system and its restructuring plan, implemented during the 1987-88 school year, is presented, followed by a discussion of changes in participative…

This document describes outcomes of the Arizona School Restructuring Pilot Project, implemented in Arizona in 1990. The project provided 11 elementary and 4 high schools, selected in a competitive grant process, with the opportunity to pilot their restructuring plans over a 4-year period (1990/91-1993/94). Data were obtained from a survey of key…

This report summarizes an evaluation of Shared Decision Making (SDM) in Los Angeles (California) schools and also includes some comments about School Based Management (SBM). SDM is a democratization of local school decision making that delegates decisions formerly made by principals to local school leadership councils composed of teachers,…

Findings of a study that examined the outcomes of longterm institutionalization of school reform are presented in this paper. Project Excellence, implemented in 1984 in a secondary school in Cochrane, Ontario, involved a comprehensive change in curriculum, instruction, and professional roles. An initial evaluation of the program, conducted during…

This work provides school change leaders with tools, techniques, tips, examples, illustrations, and stories about promoting school change. Tools provided include histograms, surveys, run charts, weighted voting, force-field analysis, decision matrices, and many others. Chapter 1, "Introduction," applies a matrix for asking questions…

Now that there are enough school-restructuring experiments to evaluate, one can examine what has been learned about transforming the restructuring concept into reality. Although principals recognize that restructuring will reshape their leadership role, studies show these administrators are pivotal to school-improvement efforts. Fred Newmann…

A formative evaluation was conducted of two elementary schools that have been engaged in the School/Community-Based Management (SCBM) process in Hawaii. The evaluation process was aligned with the SCBM philosophy, which promotes shared decision making, shared responsibility, and collaboration. Stakeholders contributed to the evaluation, which…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds a 5-year program supporting the start-up of new small high schools of no more than 400 students and the conversion of larger high schools into smaller, more personalized schools or learning communities. This report focuses on the program's first year and compares new small schools, large high schools…

This study finds that the New York City version of school-based decision making, School-Based Management/Shared Decision Making (SBM/SDM), fails to bring school-based management or shared decision making to the schools. This report begins by describing the seriously dysfunctional structure of the New York City public schools and explains the…

This guide is intended to assist faculty senates in West Virginia as they develop strategic plans required by state legislation for the integration of students with exceptional needs into regular classrooms. Following a summary of the legislation, required plan components are described, and a copy of the required form is presented. Sections of the…

This document is a republication of the Aylesbury Report, first published and distributed almost secretly in 1981 as the result of an action research project in a large housing project (the Aylesbury Estate) in southeast London. The project offered employees of a local education authority the opportunity to question, criticize, and experiment with…

An alternative conceptualization of organizational power is proposed. Power as a "system of facilitation," in contrast to power as a "system of authority" is explored and related to educational administration practices. The educational trends of clinical supervision and individualized programming within special education are analyzed to illustrate…