School-Based Management and Arts Education: Lessons from Chicago

Overview & Synopsis

School-based management, or local school control, is an organizational school reform effort aimed at decentralizing school decision-making that has become prevalent in districts throughout the United States. Using the groundbreaking Chicago system of local school control as an exemplar, this article outlines the implications of such reform efforts for arts education, especially in a time of increasing centralization at the level of federal education policy. Following a brief examination of Chicago's path to school-based management and its impact on the district's arts programs, this article describes both the challenges and the opportunities that such reforms may provide for arts education. (Contains 7 notes.)