Flexibility and accountability are two levers for change that occupy an increasingly prominent place among federal strategies for educational improvement. In return for introducing higher academic standards and performance-based accountability systems, states and districts have been granted increasing flexibility over how they may use the funding…

Students are rarely given the opportunity of being decisionmakers in class, and when they are, they may feel unsure of how to organize their own learning. However, over time they come to appreciate the benefits of a more active engagement in learning English. In this paper, I describe a procedure based on Exploratory Practice (EP) for guiding…

Educational management is a field of study and practice concerned with the operation of educational organizations. The present author has argued consistently (Bush, 1986; Bush, 1995; Bush, 1999; Bush, 2003) that educational management has to be centrally concerned with the purpose or aims of education. These purposes or goals provide the crucial…

"The Link" is a periodical published by the Child Welfare League. The Child Welfare League of America is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization. They are committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. This issue of…

Most campus building projects are high-stakes ventures that, if not correctly planned, may be accompanied by cost overruns, schedule delays, unhappy stakeholders, diminished political goodwill, delays in new programs, or even the forfeiture of a donor gift. The key to managing complexity, reducing risk, and saving time and money lies in one…

Drawing on the parallel literature on increasing student voice in the field of education and on building youth-adult partnerships in the youth development field, this article examines the place of young people in efforts to increase social justice in school settings. Through an examination of thirteen youth-adult partnership initiatives, it…

Although there is a large body of scholarship on historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), their governance practices have been underresearched. What little research that is available on the topic points to campus climates that are "president-centric" and hierarchical structures that do not encourage faculty governance. However,…

In this article we suggest that the current popularity of student voice can lead to surface compliance--to a quick response that focuses on "how to do it" rather than a reflective review of "why we might want to do it". We look at the links between student consultation and participation and the legacy of the progressive democratic tradition in our…

This article focuses on how teachers worked to build a meaningful curriculum around changes to a neighborhood and school grounds in a precinct listed for urban renewal. Drawing on a long-term relationship with the principal and one teacher, the researchers planned and designed a collaborative project to involve children as active participants in…

Successful transition planning is a lifelong process in which the student, family members, friends, and professionals come together to develop and act upon a plan that will lead to a successful adult life. For this reason, transition planning has become a part of several federal laws. The most encompassing of these laws, the Individuals with…

Public policy for agriculture and natural resources must change as farming and the use of resources change, but policy also changes to reflect new understandings. The new understandings that will shape future agricultural policy may not come from food producers or agricultural scientists, and may not assume that expanding production is the primary…

In 1989, seven Memphis City Schools (MCS) implemented school-based decision making (SBDM). This paper describes outcomes associated with shared decision-making efforts during the pilot-study years (1989-92) and following years. Data were obtained from participant observation, interviews, administration of The Tennessee School Climate Inventory…

This paper presents a practice-based theory of administrative, supervisory, and organizational decision-making, which views the organizational decision-making process as a social enterprise. It also describes how to facilitate organizational change by promoting faculty involvement and shows how to increase the potential success of reform efforts.…

This paper presents findings of a study that explored effective school-based budgeting practices within effective school-based management (SBM) contexts. The sample was comprised of 18 schools across 9 school districts (7 in the United States, 1 Canadian, and 1 Australian)--that had used SBM to improve school performance. During onsite visits,…

Although, theoretically, an organizational vision can unite school-community members, it can also destroy organizational culture without the consensus of those members. This publication offers guidelines for creating a collaborative vision--one that gives all members the opportunity to help create the vision. Each school should choose a strategy…