Purpose: The paper aims to examine the effect of implementing participatory school administration, leadership and management (PSALM) on the levels of empowerment among the educational stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach, combining the experimental design with empirical surveys, interviews and documentary analysis, was used. Survey respondents (735 for the first survey and 603 for the second survey) were school heads, teachers, students, alumni, parents and community leaders coming from 76 public secondary schools in one provincial school division in the Philippines. Findings: Stakeholders who implemented PSALM reported higher levels of empowerment compared with the control group school heads and teachers felt more empowered than the other stakeholders after one year of PSALM implementation; there was a trend for the younger and 51 years + participants to feel less empowered after implementing PSALM. The stakeholders faced challenges in implementing PSALM but they overcame them by opening communication channels and manifesting supportive behaviours. Research limitations/implications: Only people who indicated willingness to implement PSALM were involved, so there was no way to determine how stakeholders who are hesitant to practice the experimental intervention would react. Practical implications: It is suggested that the Philippine public schools should expedite the implementation of PSALM via school councils as a way to improve the school system. Originality/value: The paper presents evidence, drawn from a management experiment, that establishes the link between PSALM and empowerment levels of stakeholders. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)