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Research suggests that decentralized management reforms have produced changes in classroom practice and higher student achievement in some schools. However, many schools simply do not have the capacity to improve on their own. A few school districts are experimenting with a new approach to school reform—school networks—that relies on collaboration between schools. This article draws on data from an evaluation of the Annenberg Challenge in Los Angeles, a reform effort that experimented with school networks as a vehicle for improving schools. As a theoretical framework, the authors applied Lawler's (1991) high-involvement model, which suggests that in order for an organization's improvement efforts to be successful, resources must be decentralized, and stakeholders must be actively collaborating on the reform process. The authors found that when school networks created structures that decentralized power and distributed organizational resources throughout the network, they also enhanced school capacity for reform.

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