Issues in transforming educational policy into practice are examined in this report, with a focus on the implementation of school-based decision making (SBDM). The importance of understanding change as a process is underscored in the introduction. The first section offers a definition of and the rationale for school-based decision making and provides examples of innovative programs. The second section presents a review of school-based decision making and the research on educational change. Four major areas of the research on change include potential users' perceptions, participants' concerns, the principal's role, and patterns of change. The third section examines four issues faced by people responsible for SBDM--time, professional development, formation of an adoption strategy, and support for change. A conclusion is that the rate of the change process is affected by participants' perceptions, their movement through documented stages of concern, and the adopting principal's facilitator style. Successful change, however, often results in diverse patterns of innovation among schools. (39 references) (LMI)