NCREL's Policy Briefs

Decentralization:
Why, How, and Toward What Ends?

How Districts Are Decentralizing

The extent to which urban districts decentralize and the kinds of functions that they decentralize vary considerably. The following trends in decentralization have emerged in recent years:

• Many decentralizing districts adopt site-based management (SBM) as the major vehicle for redistributing decision-making and accountability.

• As a corollary, central offices are downsized and flattened and attempts are made to transform central administration from a distant command post into an accountable service center.

• Some districts adopt curriculum innovation as the major thrust of their decentralization effort. Local schools are encouraged to customize their educational programs (e.g., mathematics-science focus, new approaches to reading, Afrocentric schools, Comer schools, et al.), making them more responsive to identified community needs.

A brief discussion of each of these trends follows.

Posted on April 26, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-1how.htm