Site Based School Improvement
School-based improvement, sometimes called site-based management or school-based management, has been actively promoted as a means to improve the quality of schools, but there is little research to support the efficacy of the intervention. After working with schools to implement innovations over a period of several years the author has come to the conclusion that a systems approach is required if real change is to be sustained. The present study reviewed literature in both educational change and site-based management to identify key factors that must be managed to to effect the reform. The prominent factors were grouped into Enabling Conditions, Implementation Considerations, and Capacity-Building Components (as adapted from the work of Noble). It should be emphasized that the factors identified here received prominent attention in the literature but may only be representative of a broader range of conditions that may not as yet be identified. A brief description of each of the identified factors follows.
