ABSTRACT
Devolved School Management (DSM) in Scotland, and Local Management of Schools (LMS) in England and Wales are related manifestations of the changing governance of education. They involve changes in the exercise of power and leadership within schools and in the relationship of schools to the wider system of management and control. They resemble trends in other countries, holding out the promise of useful comparisons beyond the English/Scottish ones. As mentioned in the Introduction, there are several variations in labels across and within countries; these often reflect differences of emphasis amongst various elements in devolved or decentralised management. Levacic (1998:331) concisely defines the generic ‘school-based management’ in terms of two elements: 1. decentralization to school level of responsibility for decision making… 2. the sharing of decision-making power amongst the key stakeholders at school level-
head teacher, teachers, parents, students, other community members.
