The controversy over the decentralization of schools focuses essentially on the issue of community control. This article explores the current status of decentralization and evaluates its effectiveness as a vehicle for community influence and educational reform. (Author/WD)

Describes a television system proposed for rural Alaska employing a core of locally selected programs transmitted via satellite plus a cassette machine for program substitutions as a way to maximize local participation. (JMF)

An attorney involved in Alaska's "Molly Hootch Case" chronicles the events surrounding the class action suit, which resulted in a 1976 consent decree to establish a high school program in all of the 126 villages that wanted one. Legal, educational, and cultural consequences for bush Alaska are discussed. (BS)

Hmong refugees in Milwaukee created a literacy program tailored to their cultural learning needs within a vocational-technical institution. Primary ingredients include instructors from the same cultural background, connections between learning and day-to-day survival, attention to significant social needs of students, and strategies consistent…

Describes locally controlled economic development strategies used by Native American and Hispanic cooperatives and organizations: Ganados del Valle, Madera Forest Products Association, Seventh Generation Fund, and Ramah Navajo Weavers Association. Discusses the issues of cultural and economic survival in isolated rural communities. (SV)

Yolngu researchers in the Northern Territory of Australia are applying indigenous problem-solving processes and the traditional principle of unity to educational research in, for, and with the community. (SK)

Discusses the history of community control of public education, examining: sub-regional communities (New York City's community school boards and Detroit's regional decentralization); school-based decentralization (preserving professional privilege in Salt Lake City and local school councils in Chicago); balancing bottom-up and top-down; whether…

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is most often thought of as the charter that establishes individual rights in categories such as "freedom of expression" and "rights of the accused." In this essay it is argued that this conception of the Bill of Rights, while perhaps acceptable for constitutional law, does not provide…

School/Community-Based Management (SCBM) improves the quality of education by providing schools with administrative flexibility and by empowering each school's community to make and implement decisions that will directly affect its members and students. To help individual school communities that are considering adopting SCBM understand how shared…

A structural and philosophical reform of Peruvian education was instituted in March 1972, using as its basis a local community education nucleus model. This article presents the reform experience, relates it to its historical antecedents, gives some information on evaluation studies in progress, and traces some projections for educational…

Inspired by the grassroots efforts of the civil rights movement, the Algebra Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, involves parents and teachers in establishing an algebra curriculum for middle-school students. The project's philosophy is that access to algebra enables participation in advanced high school math and science, preparing students for…

Virginia's distinctive political and legislative tradition makes its intergovernmental relations particularly challenging. Following the Dillon Rule, a 19th century legal doctrine that limits local governments to exercising only those powers specifically authorized by statue, Virginia is the only state that maintains an independent city system,…

The year 1974 marked the first full year in which the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officially embarked on a policy of advising and assisting American Indian tribes to assume the administration of their own affairs (self-determination). It seeks to strengthen and stabilize tribal governments while continuing to maintain and fulfill its trust…

Some problems have been encountered in large school districts where decentralization has taken the form of community control. The idea of community schools, whereby the schools serve as key institutions in providing services and resources for all its residents, is discussed. (CJ)

The author argues that direct citizen participation cannot influence educational policy or restore the power of lay boards in public education. Asserting that more can be accomplished by a technically trained organization working within the bureaucracy, he cites the accomplishments of the Education Clearinghouse, a nonprofit group of…