Reframing Decision Making in Education: Democratic Empowerment of Teachers and Parents

American schools should be laboratories for modeling democratic concepts. However, our school systems are the antithesis of democratically run organizations. Teaching professionals, students and parents have very little power or genuine influence in decision making. Reframing Decision Making in Education begins by describing the current status of American schools and concludes with a description of the organizational structure, leadership, and decision making practices necessary to make our schools operate in a manner congruent with those democratic principles we espouse as a country. This book describe a democratic structure and a decision making matrix to help reform leaders begin such an endeavor. Woven through each chapter is a fictional story of Principal Samantha Levy. We see Ms. Levy’s struggles as she begins the process of making change in her high school and its impact on those around her.