Purpose: This article presents findings from a study of six schools in the Together Initiative (TI), which facilitates increased school autonomy from districts and expands teacher decision-making authority. This study aims to understand how TI's theory of action changed structures, cultures, and agency as the concepts of "site-based…

In this article, the authors explore how school-based hiring reforms play out among schools serving different students in different locations within a single district. In particular, they consider how the intersection of school-based capacity and local school context affect teacher selection practice and outcomes. The analysis is based on a…

Assessed the extent that four conditions (decentralization of power, knowledge and skills, information, and rewards) and three other factors (an instructional guidance system, leadership, and resources) facilitated implementation of four categories of curriculum and instructional innovations. Data from 17 schools showed strong correlations between…

Reviews existing literature on school-based management (SBM) policy and research, highlighting methods to increase SBM's effectiveness. Offers new research directions, based on current knowledge and knowledge deficiencies. Future policy and research should look beyond delegation of budget, personnel, and curriculum decisions to schools and view…

Micropolitics is the use of formal and informal power by groups and individuals to achieve their goals in organizations. Article summarizes findings of study examining 1,200 teachers' perspectives on the everyday strategies that principals use to influence them. Data from 826 teachers describing open and effective principals suggest that such…

Examines the effects of decentralized governance on instructional and curricular organization for disadvantaged pupils at the classroom level. Using descriptive information gathered from four inner-city elementary schools in Chicago and Albuquerque, this study finds that strong professional control over program decisions remains intact regardless…

Analyzes a coordinated children's service project in Chicago's decentralizing the school system from an organizational change perspective. Identifies issues, problems, and lessons concerning school-site administration that emerge from combining policy initiatives designed to open schools to community influence while extending schools' service…

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which school ethnic affiliation (Jewish vs. Arab) and site-based management affected the absence of teachers and school administrators. Research Design: Background individual and organization-level data on the population of elementary and middle-school teachers (52, 056 teachers at 2,…

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…

The impact of decentralization and devolution and its implications for principals in the state of Victoria (Australia) were investigated. Interview data documenting implementation problems and the effects of these reforms on the influence of principals and the future of the principalship in Victoria are presented. (MD)

Investigates administrative metaphors and the school principalship in the current literature. Three metaphors--maintenance, survival, and vision--are explored through participant observation of the behavior of five principals. (MLF)

Educational administration research is frequently criticized for overlooking issues of learning and teaching in schools. This special issue features four articles suggesting steps to establish a larger research agenda on learning, teaching, and educational administration. Topics include common schooling problems, school-based management,…

Describes a collaborative effort between a university and leadership teams from one elementary school and one middle school to change the schools' learning environment to increase the emphasis on student task mastery and decrease the emphasis on student ability. (60 references) (MLF)