Building on research conducted for their previous book, School-Based Management as School Reform, the authors of volume report on their investigation of a site-based managed urban elementary school and its attempts to implement reform. On the basis of their findings, they propose four `imperative' conditions for the school's success. The authors conclude with general thoughts on site-based management and school reform, and offer ideas on policies, structures and professional development that they believe could enhance positive educational change.
Lynn G. Beck is Dean of the School of Education at Pacific Lutheran University. Her research and teaching focuses on administrative ethics, principalship, and leadership preparation. Joseph F. Murphy is the Frank W. Mayborn Chair and associate dean at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. He has also been a faculty member at the University of Illinois and The Ohio State University, where he was the William Ray Flesher Professor of Education. In the public schools, he has served as an administrator at the school, district, and state levels, including an appointment as the executive assistant to the chief deputy superintendent of public instruction in California. His most recent appointment was as the founding president of the Ohio Principals Leadership Academy. At the university level, he has served as department chair and associate dean. He is past vice president of the American Educational Research Association and was the founding chair of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). He is co-editor of the AERA Handbook on Educational Administration (1999) and editor of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) yearbook, The Educational Leadership Challenge (2002). His work is in the area of school improvement, with special emphasis on leadership and policy. He has authored or co-authored 18 books in this area and edited another 12. His most recent authored volumes include Understanding and Assessing the Charter School Movement (2002), Leadership for Literacy: Research-Based Practice, PreK-3 (2003), Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement (2005), Preparing School Leaders: Defining a Research and Action Agenda (2006), and Turning Around Failing Schools: Lessons From the Organizational Sciences.
Introduction SBM Mapping of the Domain Portrait of a Successful School The Learning Imperative The Leadership Imperative The Community Imperative The Capacity-Building Imperative Success, the Four Imperatives, and SBM
