School Management in Transition examines the impact of the neo-conservative political agendas which still hold sway in education. It describes the transition that has occurred in the school leader's role from teacher-administrator to quality control supervisor and how some schools have developed strategies to deal with the resulting issues. Based on a study carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the book analyses issues such as decentralisation, testing, external assessment and privatisation in the education systems of nine of the world's most industrialised countries: the USA, UK, Japan, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece and Hungary. It contrasts different school management models in these countries and goes on to identify innovation and best practice designed to tackle such concerns as declining professional morale, premature retirements and teacher shortages. This book provides a unique insight into what is really happening in school leadership and management, and will be of great interest to school leaders, academics, researchers and policy makers