The present paper aims at presenting a retrospective on the management of public secondary schools in Portugal. We intend to focus our attention on the policies and models of choice, training and on the role performed by the school managers. Having as a starting point the 1970's, we shall visit the essential milestones of the course of the Portuguese educational system in what concerns these features. After the Law 115-A/1998, secondary public school management teams, in Portugal, are composed by teachers of the school and are elected by the schools' election board (which has all the teachers and staff and representatives of the students and parents). Therefore, they are not management professionals, but teachers who are elected for a 3-year period at the end of which they will return to teaching (unless they run and are re-elected). This form of collegial election comes in sharp contrast with the situation under which Portuguese schools were run during the dictatorship that ruled Portugal until the revolution of the 25th April 1974. Prior to the revolution, head teachers were appointed by the Minister of Education based on criteria of political trust. Head teachers, thus, were representatives of the dictatorial government. It was a management model based on the control from the central administration. During a period of two years after the revolution, the teachers took control of the school management as a reaction to the several decades of control from central administration. This self-management period was characterized by a conquest of power and autonomy and by the search for a new democratic and participative order. The schools' management council members were elected by the school members and plenary meetings were held to take decisions regarding school management. However, two years after the revolution, Law 769-A/76 regulated the collegial process of election of these management team staff. These had to be teachers of the school who were elected by their peers. Specific training in educational management was not required. In 1986, the Basic Law of the Educational System was issued. In this Law, albeit being mentioned the existence of specific training in educational management, it was not considered mandatory. Law 172/1991 pointed out to a new form of selection of head teachers. They would be teachers with specific training in school management who would be recruited through a public request for tenders. This law was contested by several educational sectors, namely by the teachers' unions, and was only enforced in an experimental regime in a small number of schools. In 1998, however, Law 115-A/98 attempted to establish a new regime of autonomy, administration and management of Portuguese schools. As mentioned before, the head teachers have at least 5 years of teaching experience, specific training in school management (or experience in managing schools) and are elected by the schools' election boards. The management of a Portuguese secondary public school can be done by a collegial structure or by a head teacher. Nevertheless, due to the specific tradition in Portuguese public schools there are relatively few schools in Portugal which opt for the later form of organization. Bearing in mind the educational management of other European countries, we intend to explain that Portuguese schools are still run under a model with strong collegial characteristics.