A study was conducted to identify and measure theoretical dimensions of teacher empowerment in 307 venture capital schools in Ohio. (The Ohio state legislature established venture capital grants to support school improvement; these grants serve as catalysts for local schools to redesign their internal structures.) Data were gathered from 4,091 classroom teachers working in 183 schools. Teacher empowerment was measured by the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) which considers six dimensions: decision-making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy, and impact. Teacher respondents rated their overall sense of empowerment between the neutral midpoint (3.00) and the "agree" (4.00) point of the 5-point rating scale. The three dimensions on which the teachers rated their empowerment between "agree" and "strongly agree" were status (4.07), professional growth (4.19), and self-efficacy (4.12). The data suggested that, overall, teachers perceived that they had status within their schools, that their schools provided opportunities for them to grow as professionals, and that they had the skills and ability to help students learn. Teachers were more neutral about whether they had opportunities to participate in decision making, to interact with colleagues, and to make an impact beyond their classrooms. Findings suggested that: (1) professional development strategies to strengthen classroom teachers' skills and knowledge should be designed as both preservice and inservice programs; (2) teacher educators should help the classroom teacher build specific and general skills for working with and within groups; (3) experience and skill-development in information gathering, information synthesis, group processes, and consensus building should be included in teacher education programs; and (4) restructuring teams need to provide more opportunities for collaboration. (Contains 32 references.) (ND)