The management team concept, which developed in response to increasingly complex problems facing schools, is not only compatible with democratic concepts but has also proved responsive to teacher and parent pressure to redistribute power, broaden decision-making participation, and improve administrative efficiency. The school management team,…

Recounts the difficulties of establishing a shared decision-making model at an elementary school used to more authoritarian governance. In another school more familiar with participative methods, this principal deemphasized administrative perfectionism and maintained team management by acknowledging the value of controlled conflict and modeling…

Shared governance is an elusive concept for schools to grasp and put into action. For schools to move forward with shared governance implementation, they need to gain a clear, precise understanding of who is involved, what processes ensure that those targeted will actually be involved, what those individuals' efforts should focus on, and what…

Ideally, school leadership should be shared among staff. However, the extent of justifiable sharing in actual practice depends on diverse contexts and consequent risks for headteachers. Research on management teams at four British primary schools shows how principals variably shared leadership by setting parameters for teamwork. (Contains 42…

The reports included in this annotated bibliography of 11 publications on school improvement teams suggest that ownership and commitment to improvement are natural consequences of shared planning and decisionmaking, that overcentralization has severely limited the scope of teachers' professional discretion, and that quality circles--stressing…

Current reform efforts, focusing on teacher empowerment, are based on the belief that lasting school improvement will occur when teachers become more involved in professional decision-making at the school site. Presented in this document are four conceptually distinct models of teacher involvement in schoolwide decision-making, identified on the…

The state and federal governments have recently mandated increased teacher participation in decisionmaking. Once a district has become open to this concept, the administration must help teachers to redefine their own role conceptions and to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to their new tasks. (Author/SJL)

Educational improvement can occur if school decisionmaking is shifted from centralized, "top down" administration to individual school control cooperatively directed by the principal, the staff, and parents. Site-based management allows the school a high degree of autonomy by placing the responsibility and authority for decisions at the school…

Describes the controversial but successful experience of a small Minnesota school district that turned over all school principal duties to a team of teachers and staff, called SHARE (Staff Helping Administer Responsible Education), to have site-based management, shared decision making, and teacher empowerment. (SM)

School administrative decisions must be based on a broad range of input; the power of group thinking is required to ensure that the best decisions are made. The necessary transition from the old, closed autocratic administrative decisionmaking system to a new, open democratic organization requires not a radical leap, but a gradual transition. The…

This paper describes Hilltop Junior High School's initial experience with interdisciplinary teaming, an arrangement whereby teachers from different disciplines systematically plan curricular experiences for a common group of students. The innovation began with the appointment of a new principal who advocated teaming as the basic unit of middle…

Drawing on interviews with 180 staff members from 45 public high schools in 15 states, this document examines the advantages and disadvantages of teacher participation in shared decision making. The settings of six high schools that had structured mechanisms for teacher participation in school decisions are described, and problems that emerged…