IIEP research and training activities related to educational adminstration and management since 1969 are recalled. These studies were conducted from the viewpoint of planning the development of education, taking into account the different levels of planning intervention (policy level, organizational, production and impact levels) and the macro and micro perspectives from which educational administration may be analysed. Eight papers show in various ways how education at the local level may be linked more efficiently to other administrative levels (intermediate and national) of education as well as to various other socio-economic sectors and to others micro-levels government activities. These papers represent different approaches to educational management: decentralization (in the sense of the transfer of power), regionalization (from Latin American experiences), development area approach at local level, nuclearization as a particular form of local level structure (two experiences from Peru and Costa Rica), multilevel approach (experiences from India, Tanzania and Bangladesh)