Conclusions reached by the Illinois State Board of Education Study, released in May 1985, that small schools are inferior and inefficient, that Illinois has too many schools, and that over half its schools should be closed seem to be an educational step backward. Without linking the two concepts, the study implies that school consolidation will…

After defining educational and cultural terms and establishing a model representing cultural reproduction, case studies illustrate how three Aboriginal communities are educating and socializing their children. Strelley, a community in Western Australia, has a history of determined independence that has resulted in a unique level of economic and…

The pressure of removal of all Indians from the eastern states and territories to the undeveloped West caused the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes to re-frame their basic institutions, including their governments, in an attempt to conform with Anglo American ideas of what was "civilized". Both the Choctaws and Cherokees established…

The New York-London Middle Schools Project of 1976 provided an opportunity for a representative group of London educators to study New York City's public school system in terms of school community relations, school based planning and staff development at the junior high/intermediate school level. In this report, British educators provide a brief…

As the traditional water carriers and water managers, third world women are crucial to the success of rural water supply projects whose short term goal is increased water quality and quantity and whose long term goal is improved family health. Change depends on the utilization of local learning systems of the society and women are most often the…

Four sets of variables are likely to influence the nature of rural education by the year 2030. The first trend characterizes the mass production model of education and calls for increased specialization. This trend is likely to be replaced by a broader, more integrated one in which the interrelationships between content areas will be more evident…

Each of these four papers highlights findings of a National Institute of Education-sponsored project entitled "Citizen Organizations: A Study of Citizen Participation in Educational Decisionmaking." The first paper, "Class, Power, and Networking: Implications of Existing Network Patterns Among Groups," discusses the effect of inter-organizational…

The relationship between research and educational policy in the areas of school system decentralization and community control is analyzed in this dissertation. The literature on decentraliztion and community control is reviewed. It is contended that existing empirical research on these subjects has not systematically tested the assumptions…

The ATS-6 Educational Satellite Communications Demonstration-Alaska (ESCD), was viewed as a way to give isolated population groups greater voice in their educational future, by bypassing bureaucratic levels and allowing the local people to have a direct say in the school curriculum and programs that were shown via satellite. This study focused on…

Many educators react defensively to demands for student assessment, accountability, and so forth. Rather than being defensive, we must turn these challenges to our advantage. If I am responsible in my work, then I ought to also be accountable for my work. We must describe what schools are expected to accomplish and show publicly whether these…

The contents of this collection of articles by various authors are organized in two parts. Part I, "Innovations within the present educational system," includes the following articles: "Children and their Caretakers," N.K. Denzin; "Participation, decentralization, community control, and quality education," M.D. Fantini; "Educational Vouchers: a…

The extent of citizen participation is influenced by local community factors, the character of Federal agency policy, and the purposes of Federal legislators and administrators. The latter include: decrease of alienation, engagement of the "sick" individual in the healing process, creation of a neighborhood power force able to influence the…

The planning of research and other programs in isolation from a concerned community arouses the following concerns in the latter: research on what problems, under whose direction, for whose benefit, and toward what ultimate goal? New models for educational planning and research into which collaboration between the researcher and community at all…

This book presents a sociological perspective on the issues involved in transferring the institutional structure of inner city schools, and discusses the closing of the gap between sociological analysis and policy, and professional practice and citizen participation. Examining the published and unpublished studies of experimental programs in urban…

In this book, Chapter 1, "The Issues," discusses such questions as: Would community control be a step toward racial separatism, intensify social friction, be anti-libertarian, be inimical to government honesty, equity, and professionalism, reduce the capacity of local government for vigorous action and for action based on citywide considerations,…