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)

Physical-economic models of neighborhood change, popularly used by neighborhood planners, are beginning to give way to more politically oriented models. Such models do not call for blind community control, but for facilitating the development of neighborhood political capacities. (Author/RLV)

The implications of the recently authorized regionalization of university administration in Spain, with the possibility of autonomous communities taking on wide responsibility for higher education and scientific and technical research, are explored. Concern is expressed for potential loss of efficiency and effectiveness. (MSE)

Contrasts community control with community participation in administratively decentralized schools. Lists large school districts in the U.S. which have been decentralized and discusses attitudes of school officials toward community involvement in public schools. Calls for more research on the effects of decentralization and community control on…

In order to determine why community control groups and low income people have been excluded from power, this study describes and analyzes in detail the politics of education in a typical New York City public school district. (Author/JLF)

The past 50 years have witnessed a vast transformation of public education from tens of thousands of relatively independent, "grass roots," citizen-controlled school districts to centrally controlled, massive bureaucracies. Ten recommendations are made which would bring public education back under the control of ordinary citizens. (RM)

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…

Previous research into the community innovation process has tended to emphasize either intercommunity communication or local socioeconomic and political factors. This article incorporates both sets of factors in an analysis of urban renewal, public housing, automated data processing by local municipalities, and public water fluoridation.…

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…

Discusses the use of video technology and community, or narrowcast, television in developing countries, particularly Africa. The importance of the media in improving communication between people and their government is emphasized, and the political, social and technical problems involved are described. (Author/LRW)

This article explores the benefits and drawbacks of centralized versus local control of schools. It concludes that our traditional conflict between Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian perspectives makes it possible for us to avoid a permanent imbalance between centrist imperatives and the need to maintain rural strength. (PB)

This paper explores how the idea of community control came about, what the concept is, and some implications it might have for communication practices in school systems. Social and political conditions which led to the idea of community control of education are reviewed. Particular attention is given to the dissatisfaction of minority groups and…

Control over a broad range of programs is being shifted back to state and local jurisdictions. Based on focus groups, interviews, and surveys of those who live in or represent organizations with a strong interest in rural America, this report highlights the concerns of rural communities towards these changing intergovernmental relations.…

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)