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…

Rapid social change in American society calls for a flexible, self-correcting educational system. The view that achievement of such a system requires major changes in the organization and delivery of educational services and a redefinition of the entire system is examined in this educational policy bulletin. Highlights of reform research are…

The challenge of changing belief systems to engender educational change is explored in this bulletin, which asserts that the current American educational system inadequately prepares students for productive participation in a rapidly changing information-oriented society. Change in the United States culture implies that alterations in education…

Reports on a survey completed by 454 members of the National Dropout Prevention Network about whether school reform is serving at-risk students. Nearly three-fourths of respondents thought that restructuring programs in their communities are not effectively changing the schools to meet the needs of students in at-risk situations. (SLD)

A number of researchers and national commission reports have recommended increased autonomy of public schools through school-site management. School-based management entails focusing the full resources of the system at school level and allowing decisions to be make at that level where faculty and principal constitute a natural management team.…

Aimed at central office administrators, school board members, staff developers, and state-level policy makers, this document is about restructuring the educational system and the two most prevalent restructuring strategies--school-based management and shared decision making. The document attempts to create awareness of the current system's…

Every aspect of children's lives affects their ability to learn and succeed in school. However, conditions associated with poverty environments are major factors in students' dropping out. Children whose home environments and social backgrounds result in development different from the mainstream enter school at a distinct educational disadvantage.…

Factors that contribute to excellence in education, as well as those that have contributed to the failure of change efforts, are the subject of this document. It provides a summary of the literature on reform efforts; effective schools; new organizational perspectives derived from the business sector; organizational restructuring being tested in…

The U.S. public education system, encumbered by an organizational structure developed at the turn of the century, is in trouble. This document presents a culminating discussion of the need to restructure the educational system. A strategy is suggested for examining the paradigms that maintain our educational system. A set of questions is provided…