Recommendations for implementing school-based management and shared decision making are presented in this educational policy bulletin. Based on a literature review and reported experiences of educational practitioners, four recommendations include: transformation of authority at district and school site levels; development of a systemwide…

Like school-based management, school-site councils offer some attractive reform possibilities, including broadly based, democratic decision-making; enhanced sensitivity to specific school climates; and widely shared responsibility. Site councils can be ineffective, even harmful, when lacking sufficient support, expertise, and time to succeed. This…

A district coordinator of gifted education in a site-based managed school system relates the learning experiences which helped define her role as an administrator and an advocate of gifted education. Her role has involved collaborating, serving as a resource, sharing program ownership, and encouraging program differentiation across the district.…

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)

The Comprehensive School Improvement Program (CSIP), a holistic school improvement plan currently operating in selected New York City schools, is explained in this guide. The handbook is divided into three sections. Section 1 discusses the goals of the CSIP, which are to enable the principal to become a more effective instructional leader of the…

Van Duyn Elementary School (Syracuse, New York) implemented a site-based project to develop student character. The neighborhood is a racially mixed, stable, private home community with 58 percent of students eligible for free or reduced price lunches. The school's objectives as part of a shared decision making, pilot school process were to have…

The Iowa Educational Excellence Act and its amendments provide for four types of Phase III programs: performance-based pay, supplemental pay, a combination of both, or comprehensive school transformation. In 1993, the Des Moines Phase III program, which originated as a combination of performance-based pay and supplemental pay, changed to a…

Examines school-based management as an effective strategy for optimizing the individual performance of teachers, students, and parents. Under school-based management, principals and teachers are given total responsibility for budgeting, selecting textbooks, scheduling, and hiring. This system provides flexibility in relationships with the broader…

The Chicago School Reform Act provided a rare opportunity for those who were involved in the development of the legislation to be primarily responsible for the initial implementation of the plan. The governance model of the Reform Act, which is the subject of this study, provided for an elected school counsel at each of 542 schools and maintained…

This report describes the Comprehensive Local School approach to school restructuring, which envisions the school as the coordinating vehicle for all children's services, including health and social services, and which reconfigures and coordinates all categorical programs at the school site under a site-based management system characterized by a…