Here is a list of books and a few articles that deal with various aspects of school improvement as it's discussed in
Making Schools Work. Most of these are very accessible to all readers. A few are more technical in nature, but you can usually distinguish those by their title. Some of these recommended readings are critical of the idea of decentralizing decision making, and others are critical of school reform. Most, though, will give you added depth of knowledge about school reform, and all of them are well written and thoughtful.Several are considered to be classics. If forewarned is forearmed, these readings will prepare you well for the revolution ahead!

Bryk, Anthony S., Valerie E. Lee, and Peter B. Holland, Catholic Schools and the Common Good, Cambridge, Ma.:Harvard University Press, 1993

Bryk, Anthony S., Penny Bender Sebring, David Kerbow, Sharon Rollow, and John Q. Easton, Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism as a Lever for Change, Boudler, Colo:Westview, 1998

Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press, 1977

Chubb, John E. and Terry M. Moe, Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, Washington, D.C., The Brookings Institution, 1990

Chubb, John E., “The System” in A Primer on America's Schools, Terry M. Moe, ed., Stanford, Ca.:Hoover, 2001

Cooper, Bruce S. and Associates, Making Money Matter in Education: A Micro-Financial Model for Determining School-Level Allocations, Efficiency, and Productivity, Journal of Education Finance, 1994, 20, No. 1 (Summer), 66-87

Hannaway, Jane, and M. Carnoy, (Eds.), Decentralization and School Improvement, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993

Hanushek, Eric A., Making Schools Work: Improving Performance and Controlling Costs, Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1994

Hill, Paul T, Christine Campbell, and James Harvey, It Takes a City: Getting Serious About Urban School Reform, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2000

McNeil, Linda M., Contradictions of School Reform, New York: Routledge, 2000

Mohrman, Susan A., Priscilla Wohlstetter and Associates, School-Based Management: Organizing for High Performance, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994

Odden, Allan and Carolyn Busch, Financing Schools for High Performance, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998

Ravitch, Diane, The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974

Ravitch, Diane, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000

Segal, Lydia, Watching But Not Seeing: Corruption and Reform in the New York City School System, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003, forthcoming, ms. 310 pp.

Snipes, Jason, Fred Doolittle, and Corinne Herlihy, Foundations for Success: Case Studies of How Urban School Systems Improve Student Acheivement, Washington, D.C.: Council of the Great City Schools, September 2002

Tucker, Marc S. and Judy B. Codding, Standards for Our Schools: How to Set Them, Measure Them, and Reach Them, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998

Tyack, David and Larry Cuban, Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform, Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1995

Williamson, Oliver E., Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications, New York: Free Press, 1975