Decision making in school-based management leadership councils: The impact of council membership diversity

School-based management (SBM) is a potentially valuable reform mechanism in urban school districts in which each school serves a unique mix of students drawn from a heterogeneous population. Because SBM usually relies on leadership councils that function as the decision-making bodies for individual schools, its effectiveness as a reform mechanism ultimately depends on the quality of these councils. This research explores how council decision-making quality is affected by five dimensions of council diversity. Results indicate that diversity in terms of council member roles and tenure in the district is related to council decision-making quality, while ethnic and gender diversity and diversity in council experience are unrelated to decision processes. Potential explanations for these findings are discussed.