Nearly four decades have passed since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensured access to public education for students with disabilities in the United States. During the years following its introduction, there was a growing recognition that helping students, especially students with disabilities, in their transitions from…

Legislation in 1977 strengthened the role of school councils, comprised of teachers, parents, and students, in South Carolina to increase community and parent participation in schools. Accomplishments achieved and obstacles encountered by school councils are discussed. Aspects of effective councils are identified. (BJV)

Explores interconnected movements to restructure school-family and school-community relationships, focusing on increased parental involvement in school governance, instructional partnerships, school-to-community outreach, and children's service coordination. Emphasizes the national crisis in urban children's lives, complementary societal…

Decentralized decision-making is an important characteristic of effective schools. Effective decentralization requires that teachers, parents, students, and the community be involved, despite the various problems they face. The creation of school improvement councils is one step towards implementing the massive structural change needed to improve…

Reviews the literature on the importance of community involvement in achieving desegregation and other broad social and educational goals; details risks that must be taken into account when planning meaningful involvement; and specifies techniques for fostering community involvement, with attention directed to the strengths and weaknesses of each.…

This review of the literature on the current state of parent and community involvement looks at the programs and practices, and their effects, in the research and practice literature, especially since 1980. The review explores past history and offers a contemporary view of the policies, trends, and factors that provide an understanding for the…

This report describes the Alliance for Achievement project, a guide for constructing a school community that takes into account influences of the home on school performance. The project began in 1989 when 5 Illinois schools developed a plan to focus parental involvement on "the curriculum of the home" and integrate these efforts into a…