Description:A number of developing countries are introducing school-based management reforms that are aimed at empowering principals and teachers. Many of these reforms also strengthen parental involvement in schools. School-based management has the potential to become a low-cost way of making public education spending more efficient by increasing accountability. Decentralized Decision-Making in Schools develops a theoretical framework of school-based management and reviews more than 20 country experiences. The authors provide a brief description of school-based management reforms, along with evidence regarding their impact on a variety of indicators. Overall, the authors find that school-based management has a positive impact on some variables reducing repetition and failure rates, and improving attendance but has mixed results on others.