Control or Empowerment

Abstract

The 1988 Education Reform Act and subsequent legislation has sought to impose on the education service of England and Wales a form of site-based planning, known as school development planning as a tool for managing school improvement. This paper identifies key problems with this approach and proposes in its place strategies for managing change and school improvement based upon North American research. It focuses in particular upon the successful school growth planning approach which has been implemented by the Halton Board of Education, and a number of other school boards in Ontario in Canada.