Synthesis of Research on School-Based Management

D adc County, Florida, has made front-page headlines with its pilot School-Based Manage ment/Shared Decision Making Pro gram The Montgomery County School Board in Maryland has approved a similar plan for spring 1989 In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, school-based man agement is coupled with parental choice as pan of an unusual desegre gation strategy Santa Fe. New Mexico, is implementing school-based man agement with teacher-led school im provement teams. The list goes on 'School-based management" is rap idly becoming the centerpiece of the current wave of reform The growing number of districts "restructuring" their sch<x)ls, as well as commentary from the National Governors' Associa tion, both national teachers' unions, and corporate leaders—all make ref erence to some form of increased school autonomy Yet there is surprisingly little empir ical research on the topic. Searches of education indexes yield numerous ref erences for school-based manage ment, but virtually all are conceptual arguments, how-to guides, and testi monials from practitioners. There is, nevertheless, an abundance of rele vant research Topics ranging from school improvement to corporate in novation bear directly on schoolbased management. v.ieir relevance can be seen when We look at why districts are turning to school-based management today