School Based Management

School-based management is the application of successful business management techniques to schools and school districts. To increase the autonomy of individual principals and teachers, and to create incentives for better academic performance, Pioneer advocates that districts devolve decision-making from their central offices to the schools themselves, and with decisions full budgetary authority. Districts that implement school-based management are more efficient financially at the same time they are more responsive to the needs of students and parents.

Recent Events:

This past spring the Center for School Reform hosted a series of school-based management presentations by former Edmonton school superintendent, Angus McBeath, and former Barnstable, Massachusetts superintendent, Tom McDonald, pioneers of school-based management. Mr. McBeath and Mr. McDonald met with municipal, school, union and business leaders in Holyoke, Springfield, Brockton and Boston.

Coming up:

Beginning this summer and fall, Pioneer plans to work with local school districts to implement school-based management. Through continued dialogue and more formal training sessions, Pioneer's Center for School Reform hopes to enact structural changes that will empower both principals and teachers, at the same time holding them to higher performance standards.