District officials often assume that decentralization will produce immediate improvement, uncover abundant building-level expertise, and spawn productive, harmonious decision making. Staff development must be geared to eliminating false expectations, developing a thorough knowledge base, and understanding how to control and evaluate the program.…

This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of the first-year implementation of the school restructuring pilot project in Baltimore City Public Schools. Implemented in 10 elementary, 2 middle, and 2 high schools, the project sought to implement school-based management to enhance student achievement. Data were collected from a survey of…

Reviews 77 empirical and case studies of school-based management (SBM) implementations reported between 1985 and 1995 to determine typical obstacles and promising ameliorative strategies. There is no firm evidence of SBM's effects on students. Administrative-control SBM would probably produce the least amount of school change. Community-control…

This paper presents findings of an interim evaluation of a site-based management (SBM) project involving three elementary schools in Toledo City Schools (Ohio). A survey of all teachers in the three schools elicited 52 responses, a 98 percent response rate. Teachers reported that relative progress had been made in the areas of collaboration,…

Written to help educators maximize student learning, this publication outlines a process for designing and implementing an improvement and restructuring plan based on knowledge acquisition, needs assessment, indepth planning, and development of commitment to change. Research has identified 14 conditions for successful schools: high attendance,…

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Project (MRBP) is a school improvement effort implemented at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools during the 1990-91 school year. A total of 24 elementary school teachers, called visiting teachers, visited designated lab sites within the system for 2 weeks each to observe exemplary instructional programs and be…

School-based planning for instructional improvement has been a major national education reform focus for over 2 decades. However, many efforts proposed to put schools in charge of their own instructional operations delivered only increased discretion rather than real autonomy over internal operations, such as budgeting. In 1997, New York City…

Articulation for Career Education (ACE) is a project designed by the Department of Career Education to continue and expand the Articulated School-Based Management Plan (ASBMP) begun in 1981. A total sum of $57,966 in Education Consolidation Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter II funds were granted for the first year of this proposed 24 month project of…

In 1996 the Chancellor introduced Performance Driven Budgeting (PDB) to the New York City schools. PDB is a form of decentralized budgetary decision making intended to provide local educators with increased control and flexibility over the use of resources. The plan established a framework of goals and principles, outlined a phased-in…

This report reviews the second-year implementation of the New York City public school system's Performance Driven Budget (PDB) initiative. The Galaxy budgeting system that is part of the PDB initiative generates a school's budget from its table of organization, and then derives district and Central budgets by aggregating all school budgets. After…

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…

Summarizes the historical background, planning, and implementation of a School-Based Management/Shared Decision Making (SBM/SDM) program in Dade County (Florida). Highlights interim evaluation findings and recommendations. (FMW)

Evidence suggests that school focused staff development programs are more likely to bring about real school improvement because the individual school is the primary unit of change. These guidelines for the development and implementation of school-focused delivery of staff development programs were prepared for Georgia school systems. The term…

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…

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…