In this article the author discusses the community school concept and relates it to his own experiences as a student and educator in Missouri. It asserts that in developing a community school, participants in the school district must be willing to give of their talents and time to improve the social environment for all its inhabitants. Cooperation…

The Kuru Development Trust is a development support program that is owned and controlled by the communities in which the organization operates, the majority being San, or Bushmen, communities in the Kalahari region of Africa. Following a holistic approach to development, Kuru is involved in a wide range of activities, including income-generating…

In 1969, the New York City school decentralization law divided the city school system into 31 (later 32) community school districts, each under the auspices of a locally elected board. The findings and recommendations of a large-scale evaluation of the governance of New York City schools in the post-decentralization era are presented in this…

Exclusion from mainstream American culture and perceptions of marginality drive some youth to create their own subgroups. As cultural elements of the subgroups reach further from what most Americans deem "acceptable," the alienation of these youth is intensified. Community agencies can use an ecological perspective to work for changes…

Discusses both ideological and managerial precepts that came into play in the school decentralization struggle that took place in New York City in the 1970s. Describes the impact of decentralization on one poor, predominantly Black district. (GC)

The difficulties faced by Chicago's public school system have prompted two state-level investigative bodies to recommend the breaking up of the system into smaller, locally controlled units. Without exhaustively reviewing all of the factors involved in making the transition from a centralized to a decentralized school governance structure, this…

This comparison of antipoverty strategies in Britain (Urban Programme) and the United States (War on Poverty) highlights their similar conceptions of the nature of the problem, differences in approach and implementation, and the contrasting political cultures of American community activism and British socialism. (SK)

Discusses goals of parent involvement and suggests effective strategies to involve parents and school officials in the education of Indian and Metis children. Covers current avenues for parent participation that schools provide as well as recent reform-oriented approaches that originate with native groups. (JHZ)

This evaluation summarizes an analysis of site observations of training sessions for the core planning teams of Project Creating a New Approach to Learning (CANAL), part of a court-mandated desegregation plan to reduce inequities in predominantly Black and Hispanic American schools in Chicago (Illinois). CANAL's goal is to train the core planning…

This evaluation analyzes participation of Local School Council (LSC) members in the special training activities of Project Creating a New Approach to Learning (CANAL), part of a court-mandated desegregation plan in Chicago (Illinois). CANAL's goal was to organize and train core planning teams (CPTs), including community members, to engage in…

If schools are to be professionally responsive to and accountable to their clients, each school must have some control over decisions affecting its particular student body. These include decisions in the areas of policy, curriculum, staffing, facilities, resources (and related finances), evaluation processes, and participation in system-level…

Rural community development is undergoing changing visions, activities, and methodologies. Factors impacting this change include decentralization, budget reduction in the public sector, and globalization and downsizing in the private sector. Community "building" (community-generated change and emphasis on capacities rather than…

A 1958 New York community study dramatized the thesis that macro forces (urbanization, industrialization, bureaucratization) have undermined all small communities' autonomy. Such "oppositional case studies" succeed when they render the dominant view immediately obsolete, have plausible origins, are testable, and generate new research.…

In 1989, Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools began an experiment with the radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened in Chicago's elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in the reform was the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational…

Since 1993, school reform leaders from Chicago (Illinois), Denver (Colorado), New York (New York), Seattle (Washington), and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) have come together in the Cross City Campaign to work for the improvement of urban education. In each of these cities rhetorical pleas for decentralization and the investment of decision making in…