Shared Decision-Making Process

The District 186 Communications Council (1998) of Springfield Public School District 186, Springfield, Illinois, has developed a manual titled Dreaming the School: A Process for Shared Decision-Making to guide the efforts to move decision-making power to the schools. The following excerpt describes the process used to make this change happen. (For a graphic representation of this process, refer to a flowchart of the shared decision-making process.)

"The Process

Shared decison-making is an effort to transform conventional school organizations into learning communities by giving local site participants the power to improve teaching and learning. Local stakeholders are empowered to make decisions that involve all parties affected by the teaching and learning process.

Shared decision-making supports and values high levels of involvement throughout these learning communities. The focus is on a process that supports new approaches to teaching and learning. Each participating learning community will have a site leadership team with parents, teachers, support staff, students (at the middle and high schools), community members, and the principal. The site leadership team will create a flexible and equitable learning environment based on the needs of the students. It will assume authority, responsibility, and accountability for the education of its students working within the parameters of state and federal law and district policy.

Communication is a crucial component of shared decision-making. The site leadership team has the primary role in communicating with the learning community. Design teams are formed to study focus areas identified through needs assessment by the site leadership team. As schools grow in their ability to use shared decision-making, existing committees are integrated into the decision-making process.

The shared decision-making process is ongoing and cyclical in nature. The following steps show the process in action:

1. A needs assessment is completed by the site leadership team.

2. The site leadership team determines design teams and committees to address focus areas of need. The site leadership team determines the make-up of design teams and committees.

3. Design teams and committees research best practices and review the literature to develop action plans to address focus areas of need.

4. Action plans are presented by the design team or committee to the site leadership team.

5. If approved, the action plan is forwarded to the school-as-a-whole for discussion and approval. If not approved, the design team is given further direction by the site leadership team for further study and planning.

6. If approved by the school-as-a-whole, the design team implements the action plan. Assessment of the action plan is the responsibility of the design team and is presented at the appropriate time to the site leadership team.

7. The School Improvement Plan is a reflection of the needs assessment completed by the site leadership team, the action plans approved by the school-as-a-whole, and the assessments completed by design teams. The assessments then become a part of the next cycle for school improvement in the needs assessment phase." (pp. 7-8)

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