Focus Areas
Decentralization
Decentralization involves the transfer of power from a central authority to a local authority. In education, decentralization's most popular form transpires when school districts delegate decision-making authority to school sites where service delivery actually occurs. In doing this, they often rely more heavily on incentives and market forces as a complement to enforceable directives. Such reforms aim to give school constituents - administrators, teachers, parents, and other community members - more control and more responsibility over what happens in schools. Enhancement of school performance and the quality of the student's education is the intended result. Examples of decentralization reforms in education include school-based management and school-based budgeting, and district programs of school choice.
CEG's work in this area applies models of decentralization and market behavior, derived from research on high-performance organizations in the private sector, to schools to improve knowledge about the factors that facilitate and impede effective decentralization.
Projects
- Pockets of Excellence: Organizing for Literacy Achievement
- Assessment of the Link Between School-Based Management and School Improvement
- Evaluation of School-Based Management (SBM)
Project Summaries
Publications
