The current research aims at clarifying how school-based management (SBM) can contribute to achieve the decision-making quality in Egyptian general secondary schools and determine the requirements of quality decision-making. It depends on the descriptive method in order to acknowledge the basics of the SBM and its relationship with the quality of…

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…

With the implementation of site-based decision-making occurring in schools, an understanding of the views of secondary school principals and of secondary school teachers would provide valuable information. In the study, six principals and six teachers, from either high performing or low performing schools, were purposefully selected for their…

Summarizes a study exploring decision-making quality among 45 participants, who were administered the Decision Making Inventory either as groups or individuals. There were few differences between individual and collaborative group decision-making formats. Individual skills were more effective regarding curriculum and discipline. There were no…

To address the effectiveness, the process, and the results of decisionmaking groups that include both administrators and teachers, and to discern the difference between the effective and less effective decisionmaking groups, 107 test groups, each composed of one Florida elementary school principal and two teachers from the same school, were…

Teachers in an Alexandria, VA high school formed the School Improvement Project to have a greater voice in the running of the school. They were surprised by the work the process demanded and by faculty members and administrators wedded to the old top-down structure. (Author/LHW)

In 1990, the Leon County Public Schools (FL) implemented a voluntary school-based, decision-making (SBDM) council. This paper presents findings of an evaluation of the SBDM system in the school district conducted after 5 years of activity. Data were obtained from interviews with 61 principals and 34 site-council chairs and from a survey of 206 out…

Decentralization has been one of the centerpieces of education reform in the United States over the past decade, yet the results so far are not encouraging. This booklet presents findings of a study that explored the hypothesis that decentralization efforts have failed to relax external constraints on schools or to enable school staffs to make…

School based decision making (SBDM) has become one of the of hottest issues in education today. In SBDM the local governing body consists of parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators responsible for the legislative duties of running their school. Since most decision-making programs are geared for use in business settings…

Findings of a study that examined the perceived effects of school-based decision making (SBDM) on school curriculum, particularly vocational education, and decision-making processes are presented in this document. Sixty-nine secondary schools in Kentucky participated in SBDM during the 1991-92 school year. Data were obtained from a survey mailed…

This paper describes the process undertaken by the Meneley Elementary School in Douglas County, Nevada, to develop a plan for shared governance. In 1989, the school became a participant in the Nevada School Improvement Project (SIP). The new governance plan established a Decision Making Council (DMC), composed of representatives from each grade…

School-based decision-making helps create a professional environment for principals and teachers and improves the quality of decisions. This publication provides 11 examples of school and statewide initiatives aimed at school improvement through the use of shared decision-making. The projects detailed are under way in the states of Alaska,…

Site-based management (SBM) could change schools by altering the scope of authority, involvement, and influence to lessen dominance relationships in education and inequities regarding struggling students. These dominance relationships exist between administrators and staff and between staff and students. SBM seems to signal a paradigm shift from a…

Research has shown that among the obstacles to success in implementing shared decision making is finding ways to negotiate the inherent power differentials and traditional role expectations among the various stakeholders. This paper describes the methods developed by district-level planning teams to "even the playing field" and to promote…

This study explores the relationship between demographic diversity among members of school leadership councils and the nature and quality of their decision-making processes. A survey was mailed to all members of the leadership councils at 156 Los Angeles (California) Unified School District schools--of which 78 were involved in the shared…