In 1991 the Oregon Legislature passed major school-reform legislation, the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. The act contains the following provisions: early childhood education; nongraded, developmental education; outcomes-based education; comprehensive support services; and school-based decision making. Oregon's educators were not…

Explores how administrators and teachers in 16 schools used facilitative power to develop site-tailored restructuring programs as part of a statewide school improvement effort. Legislatively mandated teacher leadership of site activities generated changes in school authority and accountability structures. Both principals and teachers exercised…

An educational reform effort to implement a comprehensive school act in British Columbia (Canada) is analyzed with a focus on some sociotechnical and political aspects. An overview of the content, background, and implementation of the reform effort is followed by identification of seven contradictions inherent in the plan. Contradictions are as…

This paper examines the relationship between demands for site-based management and restructuring as they bear on recent theory and research on power in organizations. It also defines and describes the new face of power in the schools--facilitative power, power exercised through, rather than over, subordinates. The bulk of the paper consists of an…

Preliminary findings of a study that matched the theoretical concept of facilitative power with the activities of principals and teachers involved in site-based management are presented in this paper. Purposes of the study included: (1) the development of more precise definitions of the concepts of restructuring and site-based management; (2) a…

This paper presents, describes, and explains the results of Project SIGN (a school improvement groups network) collaboratively conducted by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Camp Lejeune Dependents' Schools during the 1989-90 school year. The collegial, professional in-service program, designed to improve school effectiveness…