It is the purpose of this paper to suggest a role community assessment can play in the development of effective communication links between the public schools and the communities they serve, and to outline a process by which the public schools can develop their own community assessment activities. Community assessment, in the broader sense, can be viewed as a process and a strategy not only for gathering information but also for obtaining broad-based community involvement, for developing communication links to the community, for educating the community about schools, for defining "community," and for developing a continuous community sensory mechanism. (Author/MLF)