Since 1997, parents' rights of participating in children's education have been recognized in Hong Kong. Parents have been consulted and invited to participate in PTAs, manage the school, organize school activities, and assist in school functions. However, implementation of parent-school partnerships signifies the notion of parent empowerment that…

The difficulty in education to determine causality between means and ends brings various issues and variables to the discussion about the antecedents of school effectiveness. Although teachers' level of professional development is clearly among the factors influencing student outcomes, little is known about the extent to which teachers connect…

Involving parents in school management is one of the recommendations in the framework of school-based management (SBM) in Hong Kong. Thus, to set the platform for home-school cooperation in school management, there is a need to develop a partnership between parents and school in the current education reform movement in Hong Kong. The innovation…

A school improvement project in Turkey included 208 schools as Curriculum Laboratory Schools (CLSs). To evaluate the effectiveness of these schools, data were collected from 13 principals, 22 assistant principals, and 306 teachers from 7 primary and 4 high schools in 1 province. Findings indicated that the project provided some technical…

During the first 10 years of reforms, New Zealand schools had two kinds of inspections: assurance (compliance) audits and effectiveness reviews to measure academic performance and contributing factors. In 1998, accountability reviews were introduced to judge whether schools were satisfying their charter (contract) objectives. The program is…

Eastern Michigan University's Collaborative School Improvement Program initiates school-level improvement by training teachers and administrators in collaborative decision making. A survey of professional staff in 14 participating schools revealed the importance of focusing on student learning outcomes, addressing attainment obstacles, and…

Analyzes significant phenomena observed while developing and implementing Hong Kong's school-based management policy. Findings from an evaluation of 12 schools revealed that major SBM program components (teacher and parent participation, systematic planning and reporting of school activities, and flexible resource use) can contribute to school…

Reviews Hong Kong's School Management Initiative implementation strategies (rational-empirical, power-coercive, and normative-reeducative), compares them with New South Wales, Australia's strategies, and suggests an appropriate strategy for future reforms. In Australia, changes were radical and thorough (using power-coercive strategies), whereas…

Reviews five dimensions (focus, scope, structure, process, and capacity) of an organizational design used by 20 New York districts planning for site-based management (SBM) implementation. The confusion surrounding devolution of decision making hinders districts' efforts to effect changes in intermediate variables (job satisfaction and staff…

Analyzes the School Autonomy Project in Israel (1988-92) in the light of the theoretical literature on school-university partnership, as an example of academe/practitioner exchange. This project was a major innovation in a country with a highly centralized educational system. Such partnerships must include the highest field level (supervisors and…

Discusses implications of adopting an online curriculum as part of a school's information-management system, using an outcomes-based education perspective. Describes a new generation of software tools to illustrate how curriculum alignment can be accomplished and applied to monitoring student performance. IMS technology should be integrated into…

Reviews four areas of change (resource allocation, organizational framework, governing systems, and market structure) providing a framework for understanding dynamic schools and their leaders. Today's principals must become resource mobilizers capable of forming business and private foundation partnerships, linking with social-service agencies,…

Summarizes interim findings of a policy research project in Tasmania, Australia, aimed at producing educative accountability options for identifying processes and criteria to improve learning, teaching, and leadership. Identifies preferred accountability criteria and processes in Tasmania's locally managed school district, maps patterns of…

Based on current empirical data, school-based management is failing to produce radical changes in school practice. SBM, which holds untapped potential for democratizing the workplace and equitably addressing students' needs, can be analyzed in terms of formal and informal dimensions characterizing a site's scope of authority, involvement, and…

Presents excerpts from two interviews, conducted in 1979 and 1995, with John Coe, a British primary education specialist and advocate for child-centered education. As primary education has veered toward a national curriculum and assessments, school choice, locally managed schools, and a strong, politically charged accountability element, teachers…