The growing proclivity of business leaders in some urban communities to become more deeply involved in the complex and politically volatile issue of school governance is assessed in this paper. The troubles facing Detroit public schools include a high dropout rate, illiteracy of graduates, and bad management of money and resources. In 1988,…

Georgia's business leadership is concerned about that state's public education system which has consistently ranked near the bottom of the educational ladder. In 1986, the Quality Basic Education (QBE) Act became law, and its provisions are described in this document. The Georgia Alliance for Public Education (the Alliance) was mobilized to…

In South Carolina, reform through the Educational Improvement Act (1984) and business-education partnerships are paying dividends in school improvements and gains in student performance. One key factor is the continued involvement of business leaders and business organizations in monitoring and supporting full implementation of reforms. Four…

This paper, written from the perspective of the child advocacy community, acknowledges the importance of the business community in the political process. The paper profiles the contrast between two New Jerseys, one of prosperity, the other struggling under excruciating poverty. The economic boom of the 1980s broadened the gap between wealthy…

An overview of recent literature and some new models formulated by the Comprehensive Teacher Education Institutes and others regarding the development of school-university partnerships is provided in this paper. Following a general introduction, a brief account of the origins, development, and definitions of school-university partnerships is…

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…

Changes in shared decision making as a result of the implementation of school-based management in the Dade County public school system are described in this report. Background information on the school system and its restructuring plan, implemented during the 1987-88 school year, is presented, followed by a discussion of changes in participative…

Three broad themes run throughout restructuring reforms: decentralization, collaboration, and accountability. The California Legislature recently established a statewide school restructuring demonstration program to help determine whether California educators can make restructuring work. This analysis examines the concept of school restructuring,…

Many of the first-wave reform initiatives of the 1980s have been successfully implemented on a widespread basis and are having an important influence on the schooling process. The reform movement was expected to fail because of strong financial, political, and organizational arguments. Reform initiatives were said to be insufficiently funded,…

The effects of large-scale improvement projects and the trend toward decentralization on the principal's role in primary and secondary schools in Belgium are explored in this paper. Particular focuses are on the ways in which sociopolitical change influences the nature of school-level leadership and on strategies that principals use in response to…

In successful schools, a significantly larger percentage of students graduate with knowledge, skills, and a positive attitude toward citizenship and work than students in other schools of comparable socioeconomic status. Using data from the "Tennessee Looks at Its Schools" project, which was based on fourth-grade Stanford Achievement…

Attempting to place the evolution and current status of the American school system in a context that encourages administrators' pursuit of educational restructuring, this text provides a blueprint for districts choosing a site-based management approach to school system organization. Chapter 1 examines the evolution of the American school system…

Based on the concept of telecommunications as an effective means for creating a forum on school restructuring, the first video conference in a series of nine focuses on recent research on learning and describes the characteristics of successful learners from three perspectives: cognitive, philosophical, and multicultural. Provided in this…

Based on the assumption that changes in the educational experience require changes in the evaluation of student learning, this fourth guidebook in a series of nine video conferences on school restructuring presents information on the evolution of student assessment. Four shifts in educational assessment are identified: from testing to multiple…

This study examines the effects of principal leadership styles on the development of the working styles of seven local school councils in Memphis (Tennessee) during their first 15 months of operation. The successful implementation of a school-based decision making (SBDM) management model depends upon the ability of the local school council to…