Black community members often express frustrations with engagement within school board meetings through continuous advocacy for systemic change. While scholarship has identified the racial tensions between Black community members and school board members, few studies have explored how school board meeting spaces and their practices influence Black…

In an effort to increase students' preparation for and participation in civic life, teachers and schools across the United States have incorporated action civics programs into their social studies courses. These programs resemble many of the key characteristics of the public policy analysis process. However, there is little evidence suggesting…

Many public issues are becoming more complex, interconnected, and cannot be resolved by one individual or entity. Research shows an informed decision is not enough. Addressing these issues requires authentic civic engagement (deliberative dialogue) with the public to reach resourceFULL™ decisions--a decision based on diverse sources of information…

Policy makers today rely primarily on technical data as their basis for decision making. Yet, there is a potentially underestimated value in substantive reflections of the members of the public who will be affected by a particular regulation. Viewing professional policy makers and professional commenters as a community of practice, we describe…

"Citizen participation" is the active involvement of individuals in changing problematic conditions in communities and influencing policies and programs that affect the quality of their lives. Neighborhood organizations in poor communities often rely on volunteers to accomplish their goals. Therefore, social workers must understand how…

Seattle's KCTS/9 solicits and utilizes community input in making SPC-III decisions. (Author)

This handbook outlines a variety of the strategies that the Salem Public School District in Oregon used to actively involve citizens in governing their school system through community schools. Emphasis is placed on successes, failures, and principles of the community-based problem-solving and decision-making activities which the Salem School…

The emphasis in this annotated bibliography is citizen participation in education in the areas of decision making, policy development, and school governance. The focus is on the public school and school system rather than on private and parochial schools. One hundred fifty books, parts of books, and published reports are annotated, together with…

The major concern of this handbook is one method designed to accomplish human as well as physical development in the community--the problem identification survey method. Other methods of community development are described briefly. The problem identification survey is a method used to identify citizens to serve on a community development committee…

Those who direct educational systems and institutions are losing public credibility. To reverse this trend educational planners must involve the public in educational decision-making. They can do this through the design and development of cooperative procedures for planning changes in education. (Author)

The purpose of this booklet is to assist the leader, facilitator, or convener of a community group with suggestions to help the group become a more effective decision-making body. The point of view taken in this booklet is that consensus decisions, while difficult to make, are the most likely to be supported and understood by all group members.…

A study was conducted in order to determine the specific classroom qualities and characteristics that promote and motivate students to develop attitudes and behaviors conducive to civic participation. One classroom is a bi-lingual sixth grade, located in an older neighborhood school in a coastal southern California city and the other is a…

Interprets Saul Alinsky's contribution to community development through three themes: community cohesiveness as one goal of community organization; political participation and goal of broadening community participation in city-wide decision making; and the use of nonviolent conflict in unifying diverse local interests and effectively bargaining…

The influence of citizens on educational collective bargaining was examined in this study of eight school districts in California and Illinois. Data were collected through interviews with persons active in collective bargaining and observation of bargaining sessions and other meetings. The study revealed that citizens rarely participate directly…