Participatory School Administration, Leadership And Management (PSALM): Its impact on the creation of better Philippine public secondary schools

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis examines the impact of implementing participatory school administration, leadership and management (PSALM) via Advisory School Councils (ASC) in Philippine public secondary schools. Through an experiment with empirical surveys, documentary analyses and interviews, this study reveals that the experimental group (EG) had higher levels of commitment, empowerment, trust and inclination for meaningful participation in improving the school compared with the control group (CG) after one year of implementing PSALM. However, the one-year experiment did not yield a significant impact on the students’ academic achievement levels. Survey respondents (735 for the 1st survey and 603 for the 2nd survey) were the school heads, teachers, students, alumni, parents and community leaders from the 76 participating schools (38 schools for experimental group and the same number for the control group). The EG perceived the ASC operations in their schools as effective. Factors that either elicit or inhibit active participation from the stakeholders in collaborative decision making have been identified. An authentic model for the effective implementation of PSALM is proposed. The study suggests that the Philippines should expedite the process of establishing school councils in the public schools as an approach for creating better schools