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A small senate consisting of Brandt, an assistant principal, two parents and seven teachers makes proposals to the faculty, which votes on them monthly. Most teachers feel the system allows them to concentrate on what they do best. Says science teacher Jo-Anne Chumbley: "The people in charge here let you run your own show. I can do things that I wasn't able to do in 18 years of teaching."
The main lesson of these schools' experience is that self-governance works best when the principal helps form and carry out group decisions rather than imposes them from above. It is also essential to set clear goals. "You need to think about school-based management; you cannot rush in," says Dorothy Mazine, a middle-school teacher in Miami Springs, Fla. "The biggest pitfalls are time, communication and resistance to change."
Teachers and administrators must also take care to use their freedom creatively, evaluating everything from the length of a typical class period to how math should be taught. "Restructuring won't make much impact on learning and teaching if we just tinker with the system," says San Diego superintendent Thomas Payzant.
The link between self-governance and student performance is clear at some schools, unclear at others. Yet this spotty record is unlikely to mar school- based management's bright future. In May Citibank gave $2.4 million to help nine Washington, D.C., schools get their plans under way. Dade County has taken the notion a step further, asking principals and teachers to submit ideas for creating 49 new schools from the ground up. Seven are now in the planning-and-building stage. More innovations are sure to come. School districts may find that giving teachers and parents the right to make decisions about education is like dancing with a bear: once you start, you cannot decide to stop.