Who Gets the Credit and Who Gets the Blame: Principals' Background Complexity and Shared Governance Reforms.

This article explores the relationships among principals' views of shared governance, parent involvement, site-based management, and the influence of professional experience and formal training on a principal's background. The report is based on a study that investigated principals participating in a state-initiated restructuring program called the Utah Centennial School Program (CSP). The CSP is similar to other restructuring programs in that it contains requirements affecting systemic decentralized authority, participative decision making, and schoolwide accountability. The study was based on the idea that experience and training shape the way individuals think about themselves and their work. It analyzed data from a survey of 152 Utah public-school administrators who were involved in the CSP. The findings suggest that principals who have the most experience and who have earned the most educational certificates are more likely than their less experienced colleagues to perceive constituents as influential in school decisions. Principals who earned more degrees and higher degrees, however, were less likely to perceive others as having input into school decisions. A key finding was that CSP principals did not perceive parents to have much input into decisions about curriculum and instruction, nor did they want parents to have significant input. (Contains 23 references.) (RJM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) .qychis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions staled in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY