A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Assessment of School-Based Management - October 1996

Acknowledgments

Many people contributed in different ways to the Assessment of School-Based Management study. The support, encouragement and collegiality of Allan Odden were very significant gifts. He supports with enthusiasm and interest, and is always willing to interact with new ideas. His belief in public education and his fervor for its improvement are inspirational. As Senior Adviser, Allan Odden made significant contributions to all phases of the Assessment of School-Based Management study, from its initial conception and implementation to cross-site analysis and preparation of this final report. The intellectual support of Edward Lawler has been a guiding light, and we appreciate his willingness to free up Susan Albers Mohrman for four years from obligations at the Center for Effective Organizations.

Our research team has been skilled and diligent, first in helping to develop a bevy of data collection instruments, including 19 interview protocols and nine teacher surveys, and then by conducting over 500 interviews in the field and writing up pages of notes to make them suitable for cross-site analysis. We thank Sally Chou, Bonnie Cohn, Maggie Carrillo Mejia, Eleanor Odden, Peter Robertson, John Smithson, Roxane Smyer, and Paula White for their contributions. Kerri Briggs' and Amy Van Kirk's contributions as research assistants and as co-authors of this final technical research report have been significant. They have demonstrated both great skill and diligence.

We also would like to thank all the individuals in district offices and schools whom we interviewed. They welcomed us graciously, spent considerable time with us, and offered special insights into their experiences with school-based management.

Finally, we would like to thank the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement for its support of the Assessment of School-Based Management study. Susan Klein, a senior staff member at OERI and the project officer for the Assessment of School-Based Management study, provided important guidance and oversight throughout the course of this research, and we benefited enormously from ongoing discussions with her.
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[Preface] [Table of Contents] [Section One: Executive Summary]