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…

Acceptance or rejection of school policy hinges on the role played by formal and informal groups within the community power structure. Kimbrough's research suggests that formal groups are subordinate to the informal power structure in establishing policy, though formal groups make important contributions to decision-making. Some researchers…

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…

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)

The successes and failures in balancing state and local control of public community colleges are explored in this collection of essays describing effective and non-effective coordinating and planning efforts. Vincent S. Darnowski explores the Connecticut community colleges' struggle with a centralized state bureaucracy. Sidney W. Brossman uses the…

Faced with a legal mandate to equalize educational resources available to its public elementary schools, can the Board of Education of the District of Columbia respond effectively to the public pressure for decentralization of its decision-making systems? The answer may be determined through the responses to two further questions: to what extent…

This study examined a school district before and after its school board changed from appointed status to elected status to determine if there were significant differences in the board's handling of constituent demands. School board minutes were examined and demands were analyzed for a six-month period under the appointed school board, then…

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…

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…

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…

This paper is an overview of different goals and strategies relevant to the economic development of poor minority groups in the United States. The logical structures of world views, goals, and the resultant strategic choices which underlie various programs are described. In subsequent sections, issues of strategy and tactics are further analyzed.…

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…

Community, in the policy context, is defined on the basis of fixed in place socio-political unit having residential proximity to the resource or according to state recognized political units. With the boundaries drawn at the village level and the custodial rights of the common lands vested with various departments of the state, it is difficult on…

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 book focuses on the question of how citizen participation affects the making of the school budget, the crucial controlling instrument of modern bureaucratic organizations. The four communities studied differed in size, social and economic characteristics, and form of government. Chapter 1 introduces the topic and begins the discussion of the…