In the 1990s the semi-autonomous school was fast becoming a reality. The effect was that the Local Education Authority (LEA) was in danger of being squeezed out of this new scenario of centralized decentralization – unless, of course, the Authority could recreate itself and discover a new role as a service operation. In the US, school districts, faced with the same changing situation, were adopting a “customer-service orientation” with the exhortation “to get close to the customer”.
Originally published in 1994, Developing Quality Schools is the story of one Authority’s real attempt to grasp the future by encouraging schools to reconnoitre the work of relative autonomy whilst at the same time keeping faith with the principles of self-development and self-actualization. This is a most delicate balancing act for the Authority, in having to retain the trust of more independent, assertive schools on the one hand, and a more aggressive, demanding central government on the other. Today it can be read in its historical context.