Facing declining enrollment, loss of state funds, and decreasing public confidence, the Salt Lake City Schools found several groups demanding a voice in the decision-making process. A plan for shared governance was implemented. Representatives of the teachers' association, the administrative association, and the classified employees' association…

Deals with some problems in the operation of a school in a white middle-class Chicago community and the attempt by a segment of the community to influence the direction of their school. (Author/JM)

Client systems are groups of students or citizens with a stake in the institution of education, who depend upon it, and who are motivated to take some action in its regard. Teachers comprise a third system with a professional interest in education. Each system is a complex of subsystems or subgroups with contradictory as well as complementary…

Acceptance or rejection of school policy hinges on the role played by formal and informal groups within the community power structure. Kimbrough's research suggests that formal groups are subordinate to the informal power structure in establishing policy, though formal groups make important contributions to decision-making. Some researchers…

The systemic reform exemplified by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) requires the coupling of top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and leadership. This research on an Eastern Kentucky school district details the dynamics at the district's main high school, as people struggle to build both a community of learners within…

This book is an introduction and guide to school-based management, a decentralized form of organization in which decisions that have traditionally been made by a superintendent or school board are made by the local school. Chapter 1 provides an overview of decision-making in public school systems starting with a brief history of the trend toward…

A questionnaire survey of 180 Texas school district superintendents sought to determine both their perceptions of how community power structures influenced school board decisions and their techniques for communicating with their local power structure. The study analyzed four power structure types--monopolistic, multigroup noncompetitive,…

The concept of community control of schools differs from "decentralization" because community control stresses the possibility of the schools becoming an integral part of the total community. When professional educators are coupled with a cluster of special interest groups (e.g., book publishers, realtors, landowners, politicians), they form…

This book is an outgrowth of the summer institute in urban education conducted by the Division of Urban Education of Fordham University's School of Education in 1970 and 1971. Contents include the following papers: "Education in a Changing World," John Holt; "Changing Power Relationships in Education," Albert Shanker; "Education in an Urban…

Because the ultimate power to control school reform is in the hands of the superintendent or some other similarly positioned administrator, the reforms tend to benefit some student or constituency groups more than others. Judging from the personal characteristics of most superintendents and the political context of the superintendency itself, it…

Using techniques of the reputational method to study community power structure, this report identifies components of power structure in a Tennessee school district, demonstrates that proven methodologies can facilitate educational leaders' reform efforts, and serves as a pilot study for further investigation. Researchers investigated the district…

To explore the issue of local control over public education, five major questions have been identified and followed by responses from a variety of sources that depict existing conflicts and diversity in opinion. The responses illustrate that resolutions of the local control problems are uncertain, not due to lack of direction by participants, but…

This report describes the New York City public school system's experiences with decentralization since 1970. The report includes an introductory chapter explaining the conditions that led to the adoption of decentralization; analytical case studies of eight New York City decentralized school districts; and two concluding chapters on findings and…

The paper presents a detailed overview of educational policymaking and discusses the need for minority groups to be involved in policy formation. The first section describes the distinguishing characteristics of the main elements of the functions of administration and policymaking process. The second section examines the following three models of…