IntroductionIn the contemporary world, school-based management (SBM) with devolution of authority is becoming a common phenomenon. It is a more progressive democratic step in the centralization vs decentralization continuum. The research has revealed SBM as a pragmatic approach to a formal alteration of the bureaucratic model of school administration with a more democratic structure. This form of decentralization identifies the individual school as the primary unit of improvement and relies on the redistribution of decisionmaking authority through which improvements in the schools are stimulated and sustained. It is believed that democratic devolution leads to more effective decision making resulting in increased autonomy, flexibility, productivity, and accountability.However, SBM is a concept which has not been adequately researched to prove its effectiveness. Malen et al. [1] stated that the resurgence of SBM provides opportunities to research this movement in a variety of settings and under diverse conditions to generate the knowledge-base needed to discover whether SBM operates as a significant strategy that realizes its stated goals and improves the performance of schools. Chapman[2] emphasized that the Victorian initiative is of particular interest to those concerned about school effectiveness as it sought school improvement through a wide-ranging community and staff involvement and a revised role for principals, while Brown[3] emphasized that the Victorian example of SBM in its form of political decentralization would be most worthy of further study. It was against this background that this research project was undertaken in 1992-93, involving 66 state schools for the purpose of ascertaining the overall effectiveness of the Victorian model of SBM. The article includes brief discussions on the evolution of democratic devolution; previous research, the purpose, methodology and the sample of this project, analysis of data and some of the findings of the research.