http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
When Texas joined the wave of school reform and mandated
site-based management in 1991 (House Bill 2885), it
literally turned the school business upside down, presenting
many challenges for those involved in implementing site-
based management. No one faced a bigger challenge than the
school principal, whose importance was cited by Cohen (1986)
when he stated his five correlates for effective schools,
one correlate being, "Strong administrative leadership by
the school principal, especially in regard to instructional
matters" (pp. 13-15). The study of the challenges facing a
principal implementing site-based management is one that is
chock full of subtleties, subtleties that can only be
discovered by using a naturalistic paradigm as opposed to a
positivistic paradigm. The research question in this study
was: What are the challenges the principal at Falls High
School faces in implementing site-based decision making and
how does he handle them? This research used the naturalistic
inquiry process of Lincoln and Guba (1985) to chronicle the
challenges the principal of Falls High School faced in
implementing site-based management. Data were gathered from
both structured and unstructured interviews administered by
a participant observer. This information was unitized and
transferred to index cards. From this, a case study was
developed. The study found that the principal's first
challenge was to adapt his management style to site-based
management. Although that did not prove to be a problem for
the principal in this study, other challenges arose. A
primary challenge for the principal was to lead teachers who
had no training in how to wield power. The lack of training
for all concerned, including the principal, proved to be a
major stumbling block in the implementation of site-based
management. Another stumbling block was the principal having
to deal with teachers who wanted to make changes that the
superintendent did not want to go into effect. In summary,
even though site-based management gave power to teachers,
teachers are not automatically ready to assume that power.
Also, the school district did a woeful job of preparing for
the implementation of site-based management.
"Major Subject: Educational Administration".
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc.
Includes bibliographical references: pages 113-118.