How public deliberation can be used to bring together schools and communities with linguistic and cultural diversity so that they can focus on educational reform is discussed. Public deliberation is described and its purposes reviewed. Three public engagement formats, forums and study circles, focus groups, and citizens' juries, are described. One in five school children comes from a home in which a language other than English is spoken, and shifting demographic patterns are already seen in U.S. urban schools. Public deliberation can bring diverse groups of people together to achieve understanding, if not consensus, on a range of educational issues. Appendixes contain a guide to the three dialogue formats, a guide to five dialogue organizations that provide training and technical assistance, and a list of resources, including articles about communities that have used public deliberation to change their schools. (Contains 22 references.) (SLD)