A vast number of different types of citizens' groups participate in the educational process with differing degrees of involvement. Besides school-oriented groups, there are child advocacy and neighborhood associations, other citizens groups that have broad concerns but are in part interested in schools, and the advisory committees created by legal…

The history, current issues and future potential of rural township government today were the central focus of a 1972 survey of 18 townships in 6 southwestern Minnesota counties. Survey methodology included personal interviews with both residents and township officers, mailed questionnaires, and attendance at board meetings of the Minnesota…

This paper is designed as a guide to the study of empowerment in the neighborhood movement for historic preservation in New Orleans' French Quarter. For this case study, whose initial focus in on a relatively affluent sector of the population, culture and identity become prominent. However, the review adopts a broader focus to ensure its…

This second volume of a status report on citizen participation in educational decision-making considers in more detail a variety of channels for participation. In chapter 1, three examples of community councils illumine the importance of race, class, and economic factors in patterns of participation. Chapter 2 focuses on mandated school councils…

This paper examines whether suburban communities can provide any useful conceptual tools for the examination of the prospects for community control in cities. Several propositions are advanced: First it is argued that the relevance of suburban community control to the poor in the cities is not diminished by the finding that those of high social…

Responds to criticisms of the community control approach to public education. Holds that community control was only unsuccessful because it was opposed by those interests who feared the consequences of participation by the poor, and that the idea should be given an opportunity to operate at the local level. (Author/GC)

The local school board has traditionally been the predominant control mechanism for public education in this country. Since the 1970s however, increased legislation and reform in statehouses across the nation have functioned to reduce the discretion enjoyed by local boards. This paper represents an attempt to sketch this increase in state…

In this speech the subject of eroding public confidence in the public schools is discussed. Elected school boards and school administrators quite frequently do not solve the problems facing the schools, and this failure is often because of lack of communication with the public and lack of citizen participation in decisions affecting school…

This resource paper on the subject of citizen participation, decentralization, and advocacy planning is part of a series designed to supplement undergraduate geography courses. The approach of the paper de-emphasizes inventory or case study reviews of specific participation or advocacy planning projects for a more general conceptual discussion of…

This chapter provides insights into the solution of financial and governance problems that face big city education. The report identifies recent developments affecting big city education such as metropolitanism, regionalism, full State financing, revenue sharing, and reform of property taxation. The authors discuss (1) recent court cases affecting…

Public discussion of American education centers on crisis and decline. In response to these sentiments, citizens are fast abandoning all forms of local control over schools. Schools are controlled by increasingly distant experts. Some people think that this new direction is necessary because the schools have failed academically. On the contrary,…

Each of these four papers highlights findings of a National Institute of Education-sponsored project entitled "Citizen Organizations: A Study of Citizen Participation in Educational Decisionmaking." The first paper, "Class, Power, and Networking: Implications of Existing Network Patterns Among Groups," discusses the effect of inter-organizational…

The extent of citizen participation is influenced by local community factors, the character of Federal agency policy, and the purposes of Federal legislators and administrators. The latter include: decrease of alienation, engagement of the "sick" individual in the healing process, creation of a neighborhood power force able to influence the…

Because the ultimate power to control school reform is in the hands of the superintendent or some other similarly positioned administrator, the reforms tend to benefit some student or constituency groups more than others. Judging from the personal characteristics of most superintendents and the political context of the superintendency itself, it…

Inviting policy development is an attempt to cordially summon those who are involved and affected by rules, codes, and procedures to understand and participate in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies. This paper first presents criteria for an invitational framework for policy development and then goes on to discuss the…