Recently, a group of 26 elementary, middle, and high school principals met to evaluate the Prince William County (Virginia) Public Schools' school-based management system after its first year of operation. Principals made generally positive comments about budgetary changes; staff and community involvement; the evaluation process; and the role…

Preparation for school leadership has become a major global educational issue since the late 1990s. In Hong Kong, the establishment and implementation of school-based management in the 1990s have made significant demands on principals. In 1999, a leadership development and training programme for serving and aspiring principals was initiated by the…

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,…

This paper explores the impact of school reform on learning outcomes and on the professional culture of the principalship. The report draws on findings from several research projects involving surveys and case studies in the period 1993 to 1998, with special focus on the Schools of the Future reform in Victoria, Australia. The article describes…

The primary goal of the School Improvement Project (SIP), administered by the central office of New York City (New York) Public Schools, is to improve academic achievement through school-based planning. A planning committee representing the various school constituencies is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to effect…

Introducing a wider perspective of evaluation into the school by developing school-based evaluation mechanisms is discussed. The approach is based on conceptual development derived from U.S. perspectives on program evaluation, actual work in schools with teachers and principals in Israel, and empirical studies in the United States. (SLD)

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…

Project Creating a New Approach to Learning (CANAL) was established under the agreement between the United States and the Chicago (Illinois) Board of Education to relieve the effects of segregation in Chicago schools. This report summarizes the participation of CANAL schools in training activities offered by Project CANAL from February 2 through…

The Tyler (Texas) Independent School District's Instructional Leadership System, which is based on the premise that effective leadership is the basis for the success of the instructional program, is described and evaluated in this report. The system is described in terms of administrative organization; management design; the system's basis in the…

Six school-based improvement programs distributed throughout the United States were studied in order to determine how effective these plans have been and what factors help or hinder them. The programs studied shared three central features: 1) focus on the school as a whole; 2) involvement of teachers in designing improvements; and 3) incorporation…

Project Creating a New Approach to Learning (CANAL) was funded by monies granted under the Settlement Agreement between the United States and the Chicago (Illinois) Board of Education to relieve the effects of segregation in racially identifiable Black and Hispanic American schools. Using a school-based management system, principals, teachers,…