Article explores the question of local school control and whether or not it has ever existed in the American public school system. (GB)

The future stability of the Los Angeles school district as a single entity is questioned. Various problems that add instability to the system's present decentralization plans are discussed. Among them are achievement and academic performance. (Author/AM)

Analyzes why, as the process of decision-making has been centralized by school bureaucracies, and as professional educators have gained power, public education has become a closed social institution neither accountable nor responsible to the citizens it serves. (JM)

Reviews books which emphasize the modicum of influence exercised by the public on educational policy. Data were obtained on community-school interaction in 17 communities. Control of educational policy was demonstrated to be in the hands of administrators, with tacit consent of the public. (Author/DB)

Described attempts to report "hard" research in the area of educational administration and its relation to the community and expressed the hope that the school environment might be changed in order that a more rigorous research could be developed. (Author/RK)

This paper reviews and discusses political models that bear on policy-making processes. The first part of the report deals with the merits of the "elitist" versus the "pluralistic" frameworks used to analyze the exercise of power in local communities. This review of the theories serves as a basis for a subsequent discussion of…

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 discussion is organized into four sections. In an introductory section, it is pointed out that the word "decentralization" appears to have many meanings. There is a need to clarify definitions, and to examine decentralization in a practical, working context. In Part 1, "Background and Issues", some of the major issues…