The problems facing public education in the United States today are many. School-based management is one type of reform that takes into consideration the diversity of student populations and builds shared goals among the students, staff, school, and community. This paper summarizes research findings on the components of effective school…

School-based management (SBM), sometimes called site-based management, is fast becoming the hottest restructuring item in the arsenal of reformers, teachers' unions, governors, and legislators who want to change the traditional ways in which schools and school districts do business. This document comprises three main sections with contributions…

Research on school-based management approaches to educational reform, including effective schools research, is presented. Included are an introductory section on school-based improvement and its link to effective schools, by Anne T. Henderson; descriptive summaries of 53 references; a list of organizations to contact for further information; and a…

School-based management refers to a form of educational administration in which the school becomes the primary unit for decision-making. The book is structured into five parts. In part 1, international developments in school-based decision-making and management are documented and analyzed. Described are developments in Australia, Canada, France,…

Site-based management (SBM) is an increasingly popular approach to school restructuring. SBM aims to transfer authority from state agencies and school districts to committees based at schools. To garner a consensus supporting reform, these committees are to be representative of educational and community members. SBM plans are characterized by: (1)…

Ways in which strategies drawn from the local change process literature can enhance the broader implementation of a new approach to site-based management (SBM) are described in this paper. The first section presents a new conceptual framework for SBM that is based on decentralizing power, knowledge, information, and rewards within systemic…

In 1987, the State of Maine encouraged schools to make fundamental organizational changes necessary to ensure that all children are successful in school. This booklet reports on the progress of 10 Maine schools that are wrestling with fundamental questions about the purpose, content, and organization of schooling. Each school is profiled with a…

Existing literature on school-based management (SBM) policy and research is reviewed in this paper, which also highlights several themes related to both why school-based management does not work and how it can be designed to be more effective. The literature review suggests that past studies have tended to be general and descriptive in focus,…

School reform has taken many shapes over the years. Among the most pervasive of school-reform theories is school-based management (SBM), which is examined in detail in this book. The introductory chapter locates the current round of SBM in the longer cycle of educational reform, describes the extent of SBM activity over the past decade in the…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) is the most comprehensive reform legislation nationally, bringing substantial change to all levels of the educational system. A group of researchers who have spent time in schools in Kentucky and policy analysts knowledgeable about Kentucky and other state education reform efforts convened in October 1992…

This policy brief focuses on design issues surrounding decentralization policies, drawing from the following three reports: "Working Models of Choice in Public Education," by Richard F. Elmore; "Diversity Amidst Standardization: State Differential Treatment of Districts," by Susan H. Fuhrman; and "School District Restructuring in Santa Fe, New…

Over the past decade, the United Kingdom's central government education-reform program has created new leadership and management tasks. Key questions have arisen about how leaders will work to achieve the core purpose of their schools. This paper is based on a review of 15 major research studies that examined the impact of recent educational…

Second-wave reforms that will affect vocational education are (1) national goals, testing, and accountability; (2) school choice; (3) teacher education and certification; and (4) site/school-based management. Vocational education must go beyond adaptation to changes and consider the broader context of general educational reform. (SK)

Discusses the role of the school media specialist in the budgeting aspects of site based management. The involvement of businesses in education is discussed, restructuring school systems through site-based management is described, and the economic recession and the resulting decline in money for education are considered. (19 references) (LRW)

The demand for reform and improved schools are two constant issues in American education. Despite periodic reform efforts, most schools have resisted systemic reform. The Effective Schools Movement was a reaction to assertions in the 1960s that schools had little influence on a child's education. Effective Schools involve all relevant stakeholders…