School-Based Policies in Iran

This paper aimed at examining school-based policies in Iran. School-based approach has been dominated educational systems of developed countries over the past four decades. Delegation of authority to lower levels, particularly to schools for decision making, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation is central to this approach. Efforts have been made to formulate, plan, and implement school-based policies and programs in Iran over a decade. This paper attempts to delve into the quality and quantity of these efforts by verifying and analyzing assertions and implications of Iran's 3rd, 4th, and 5th Development Plans, Theoretical foundations of fundamental Transition in Formal public Education in Islamic Republic of Iran (2011) and laws and regulations approved by Iran's Supreme Council of Education. The results indicated that although the above - mentioned documents and plans focused on the need for reforming structures and organizations, using non-governmental power and private capital, reducing government's tenure, encouraging stakeholders' participation, and favoring school independence, the quality and quantity powers assigned were incompatible with school- based assumptions. Delegation of authority was mainly centered around the decision making on how focused plans should be implemented. While many cooperative organizations have been established in schools through these policies and laws, these efforts are not based upon a comprehensive evaluation on which they can be judged. However, limited amount of evaluation has been carried out, but according to the experts' experiences and ideas, the intended goals has not been fully achieved.