As the problems encountered by big city school systems have increased, the educational establishment has come under sharp attack in some part because professional educators have unilaterally made far reaching decisions, insulated from public scrutiny. In order to voice opposition to these decisions, some community members have begun to form new community educational interest groups (CEIGs). The relationships these new CEIGs have formed with the educational leaders differ from those formed by the traditional school-community groups. Rather than rallying to the support of the professional educators, these new CEIGs often form to oppose the educational leaders so that they can force them to justify or change their decisions. Thus confrontation rather than cooperation has more frequently become the basis of CEIG-educational leader interactions. To help educational leaders (i.e., administrators and board members) to better understand these new interaction patterns, an exploration of the goals and tactics of the new CEIGs is needed, as well as an analysis of the political interactions that occur between these groups. A systems model is employed here to illustrate, categorize and explore the dynamics of the political patterns of interaction. The model is utilized to interpret data obtained from three CEIGs operating in a large Northeastern city. (Author/JM)