Much of the existing literature on urban school reform focuses on how the relatively small number of our nation's largest urban districts are approaching school reform with these objectives in mind. However, does smaller district size have any bearing, direct or indirect, on the nature of superintendent leadership? The authors' exploratory…

Compares the school decentralization process and political background in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami. Finds that successful programs are characterized by local-level policymaking, strong alliances between district management and teachers, an atmosphere conducive to change and risk, and a willingness to allow schools independence in…

While school-based management (SBM) is increasingly becoming a part of state and district reform efforts, there is little evidence that it improves school performance. However, this may be an unrealistic expectation for a governance-oriented reform. SBM also can improve organizational performance not only when people at lower levels are brought…

School-based management (SBM) offers a mechanism to promote school improvement through decentralization. Decentralization can occur only gradually and cannot simply be implemented. The power to make decisions influencing organizational policies must shift to school-based councils comprised of administrators, teachers, parents, community members,…

Summarizes results of an in-depth study of 25 elementary and middle schools in 11 districts in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Some schools were actively restructuring; others were going through the motions of school-based management with little instructional change. The most successful SBM plans were those that empowered new decision…

Existing literature on school-based management (SBM) policy and research is reviewed in this paper, which also highlights several themes related to both why school-based management does not work and how it can be designed to be more effective. The literature review suggests that past studies have tended to be general and descriptive in focus,…

The oversight of state education reforms is explored in this paper, with a focus on the motivations of program fixers and the strategies they use to guide implementation. Fifty-seven interviews were conducted with legislators, committee staff, and legislative agency staff to analyze the program fixing process in six states--Arizona, Louisiana,…

This publication summarizes research that investigated how school-based management (SBM) can be implemented for long-term school improvement. It is argued that a successful SBM plan must be part of a quest for improvement and utilize a "high involvement" model. In addition to having more power, schools need knowledge of the organization,…

The relationship between the political context of school districts and their choices of decentralization policy is explored in this paper. It was expected that district politics would affect decentralization policies in two ways: the form of decentralization adopted and the degree of change. The decision to decentralize in three large urban school…

The School-Based Management Project was designed to determine how School-Based Management (SBM), when combined with curriculum and instruction reform, could work to improve the performance of schools. This report presents findings of a study that examined American, Canadian, and Australian schools that exhibited a range of success in restructuring…

Exemplary approaches to school-based budgeting are examined in this paper. Interviews were conducted with district staff involved in implementing school-based budget reforms in five school districts--Chicago, Dade County (Florida), Detroit, Los Angeles, and Edmonton (Canada)--and with state-level staff in California, Florida, Kentucky, and…