ERIC Number: ED132673
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1976
Pages: 42
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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EISSN: N/A
Who Governs American Education: One More Time.
Zeigler, L. Harmon; Tucker, Harvey J.
This six-step model examines the role of six potential participants in the educational policy formation process. The six steps are proposal development, executive recommendation (performed by the superintendent), legislative action (by the school board), supplementary change, implementation, and review. The six potential participants in this process are the school board, the superintendent, the central administrative staff, other professionals (teachers, principals), the public, and other governmental units. In practice, educational governance is not conducted according to either traditional democratic theory or according to a democratic model of administrative representation. Instead, the executive (the superintendent and his or her professional staff) carries the most weight in educational decision-making. In all six policy formation steps, administrators dominate the school board, which frequently looks to the superintendent for advice and information that it cannot assemble by itself. For example, the superintendent usually sets the agenda and defines the issues that the board will consider. Citizen participation in school district governance is, therefore, even further restricted, since direct input from the public is already minimal. This paper contains additional data collected to extend an earlier study of educational governance. (Author/DS)
Descriptors: Board Administrator Relationship, Boards of Education, Citizen Participation, Decision Making, Educational Administration, Educational Policy, Elementary Secondary Education, Governance, Models, Policy Formation, Politics, School Community Relationship, Statistical Data, Superintendents
Publication Type: Reports - Research
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Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A