This paper calls for the use of experience-based teacher education and staff development to foster strong school communities. The authors discuss an evaluation of the Experiential Curricula Project at Stanford University, an innovative course sequence for prospective teachers. They focus in particular on the program's ability to foster community both among students and among students and teachers in an urban multi-cultural setting. They examine current reform strategies intended to promote teacher and school community including site-based management, magnet programs, school-within-a-school programs and restructuring and argue that these reforms meet with limited success in creating strong community in schools because of three obstacles: (1) organizational efforts do not provide teachers with experiences on which to draw, (2) organizational efforts do not provide teachers with the pedagogical techniques or the curricular orientation necessary to effectively foster and sustain community in schools, and (3) organizational efforts commonly emphasize the instrumental rather than the intrinsic value of community. The paper highlights the potential contribution experience-based teacher training and staff development can make to the creation of more supportive and inclusive learning environments for students as well as teachers. (Author)