Decentralized decision-making is an important characteristic of effective schools. Effective decentralization requires that teachers, parents, students, and the community be involved, despite the various problems they face. The creation of school improvement councils is one step towards implementing the massive structural change needed to improve…

Reviews the literature on the importance of community involvement in achieving desegregation and other broad social and educational goals; details risks that must be taken into account when planning meaningful involvement; and specifies techniques for fostering community involvement, with attention directed to the strengths and weaknesses of each.…

This report describes the Alliance for Achievement project, a guide for constructing a school community that takes into account influences of the home on school performance. The project began in 1989 when 5 Illinois schools developed a plan to focus parental involvement on "the curriculum of the home" and integrate these efforts into a…