In one Colorado school district, site-based management creates ownership for those responsible for implementing decisions by involving them directly in the decision-making process. This article summarizes the district's mistakes and accomplishments in defining terms and roles, providing support and training, resolving conflict, and managing…

Identifies five types of parent participation, including basic obligations of parents and schools and parental involvement at school, in home learning activities, and in governance and advocacy. These types occur in different places, require different materials and processes, and lead to different outcomes. No one model serves all purposes. (MLH)

The League of Professional Schools is a practitioner-driven, school-initiated reform effort founded on the belief that those closest to students have the capacity to improve schools. The league now has 62 member schools working on action plans. The league's three guiding premises are shared governance, action research, and instructional focus.…

Describes the development of an authentic assessment model identifying 14 complex thinking processes. Two teachers designed a task allowing high school students to demonstrate their biotechnological knowledge and simultaneously deploy a complex thinking process (decision making). This model required students to synthesize and integrate what they…

Building capacity in schools means developing a new understanding of leadership capacity--broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership. Leadership capacity can be seen as a complex, interactive framework, with four types of schools and school communities. Leadership is everyone's work, but it does not require extraordinary…

When embarking on school/community-based management, nine Hawaii elementary schools trained their staff in facilitative leadership and received technical assistance from district offices. Schools can involve more parents by reaching a shared understanding about parental involvement, developing appropriate involvement strategies, providing parents…

The schools are the agency that American society has set up to teach its youth knowledge and skills. The time has come for schools to take a more active role in the development of values and judgment standards, at least by providing a forum for discussing and examining such standards. (Author/JG)

Because children are subjected to undesirable and confusing socialization messages from peer networks and the media, schools are now paying more attention to students' social development needs. To counter schools' hidden curriculum and help students cope with stress and avoid serious interpersonal difficulties, an eight-step Improving Social…

Article is based partially on work done by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, in the development of instructional systems which provide increased problem-solving capabilities for teachers and administrators. (Editor)

The effective administrator varies leadership styles in positive ways to gain staff members' support for organizational goals. (Author/JM)

According to the strategic management approach, the curriculum of a school system is a strategic statement of the system that determines how it selects activities, organizes its resources, and determines how well the system has performed its function within the overall policies it was constructed to implement. (Author/JM)

A survey among 140 advisory committee members serving various levels of administration in Florida's seven largest county districts revealed that committees are not involved in budgeting or staff evaluation, and that they seldom succeed in getting other changes made. (Author/MLF)

Changes geared toward enhancing student success occurring in certain Miami, Minneapolis, and New York City schools capture the essence of educational restructuring. A complete overhaul of curriculum and instruction, authority and decision-making practices, staff roles, and accountability systems is necessary--especially in inner-city schools.…

A study of three schools practicing shared governance indicates that supervision and teacher empowerment are compatible concepts. The keys to success are patience and administrators' philosophical commitment to shared decision-making. Includes three references. (MLH)