Three ways to think about decision making in public high schools are to think about the types of decisions that are made, the approaches to the decision-making process, and the principles underlying decision making. The Design Group for New Designs for the Comprehensive High School refers to a set of principles as design specifications. They have proposed a set of eight design specifications that could guide future approaches to decision making in the comprehensive high school: (1) designs should be deeply rooted in a purpose that is aligned with the vision of the school; (2) decision making should begin at the site of learning, yet be decentered; (3) decisions should make things better for all, not just different for some; (4) decisions are the voice of staff, students, partners, and the broader community; (5) decision making should still be authoritative, not democratic--some decisions are better than others and authority is vested unequally; (6) decision making should have access to the rich resources of all the other partners; (7) decision making should be yes-based rather than no-based, assuming waivers or variances are already under local control or will be granted by the controlling element; and (8) decisions are transitional between traditional and progressive ways of acting. Issues raised include what the existence of a set of design specifications do for an organization and whether specifications can be defended in the global community. (Contains 32 references.) (YLB)