Nurturing innovation: how much does collaborative management help?

Collaborative decision making and site‐based management have been proposed as essential foundations for reform of classroom instruction. Using data from the nationally‐compiled PROSPECTS Data Survey, this study analyzes the data for key variables pertaining to school organization, teacher characteristics, and classroom instruction. The purpose is to determine the degree to which innovative practice relates to collaborative decision‐making process, individual teacher background characteristics, or another combination of factors. The results surprisingly downplay the impact of collaborative management on instructional practice, identifying instead sustained inservice programs and teacher belief in student ability to learn as potentially more promising directions for future research and practice aimed at the question of instructional reform.