Editor's Note: For this issue of Policy Briefs, representatives from the 13 largest urban districts in the NCREL region (Chicago, Ill.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Des Moines, Iowa; Detroit, Mich.; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.; Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio; and Milwaukee, Wis) were interviewed about changes in their district's governance structure and the extent to which the districts are decentralized and implementing site-based management. The rationale, process, obstacles, and recommendations for policies that would support these efforts were queried and comments were written into the somewhat informal text that follows. Those interviewed are members of the NCREL Urban Education Network (UEN) or their designated peers. Because of the widely publicized nature of school reform in Chicago, we also have chosen to include some background information on the Chicago School Reform Act from a publication by G. Alfred Hess.
We hope that you will find the comments that follow both informative and interesting, if, at times, controversial. We applaud the UEN members for their contributions to this discussion on urban school decentralization.
Posted on April 26, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-1prof.htm