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…

Superintendents' attitudes toward community participation in and control of curriculum issues in relation to the current demands for a broad base in school decision-making are examined. It is hypothesized that superintendents will differ in their attitudes on participation and control in four areas of school decision-making. Certain…

This book is divided into four chapters. The first examines the concepts and issues related to understanding social systems and how the schools can be viewed as a social system. The differences between centralization and decentralization, as well as systems-analysis and management-control approaches are also explored. In the next chapter, we are…

This is the report of a project executed to assist in developing research policies on urban education. Data was gathered from several large cities, but detailed reports are included from Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Oakland. Trends in urban education with respect to decentralization and community control are…

A discussion of the educational problems of big-city school systems which defines the community school concept or philosophy, and emphasizes the role of an energetic school-home partnership composed of the community, parents, leaders, and educators. (JM)

Indian-controlled education programs may be evaluated by involving community members/leaders; administrators/teachers/students; federal-provincial education officers. The advantages include heightening community awareness of strengths/weaknesses in education programs, allowing community control over nature/duration of evaluation, providing ongoing…

Sheds light on a growing conflict that has surfaced between urban communities and teachers' unions: the conflict over the sharing of power in school decision making. Discusses the actions of the Philadelphia Parents Union. (Author/IRT)

Drawing largely on data from Los Angeles, but with reference to other cities where appropriate, this paper attempts to clarify the distinctive positions taken by advocates of community control as opposed to proponents of administrative decentralization. While community control is essentially a political demand, oriented toward citizens influencing…

This handbook is organized by action areas that a school principal needs to consider in creating, maintaining, and utilizing successful involvement with the neighboring communities. Each area discusses the range of options available to the principal. Building principals are thus able to select features to fit their particular communities. The…

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…

In 1987-88, some 150 American Indian students, parents, tribal leaders, and educators participated in seven regional dialogues on the reforms needed in American Indian education. Participants gave a clear message that Indians want direct control over educational institutions serving their children, curriculum reform to make cultural retention an…

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…

Research on District Decentralized Title I ESEA programs reveals conflict among school officials, community representatives, and community agencies. School officials mistrust and poorly communicate with community representatives. Community agencies compete for the economic resources brought by decentralization, while overlooking the main objective…

School community relations in big cities are marked by apathy and distrust and, often, by hostility. Yet, many Federal programs and many pressing urban problems require that administrators and communities work together more closely than ever before. This project analyzes evidence from recent empirical research and from field evaluations to…

The systemic reform exemplified by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) requires the coupling of top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and leadership. This research on an Eastern Kentucky school district details the dynamics at the district's main high school, as people struggle to build both a community of learners within…