How can a busy teacher help parents sort through the (often misleading) public conversation on education to understand what truly are sound practices in the classroom? This book, which contains interviews of practicing community organizers, lays out a step-by-step plan for teachers to adapt the tried-and-true strategies of organizers working in public health, environmental advocacy, and social justice. The book offers teachers and teacher educators a practical, hands-on guide to effecting positive change in their own learning communities and in the larger social community. Expressed in lively, down-to-earth language, the book's model shows teachers how to build on skills they already possess--organizing, collaborating, informing, empowering, and sparking interest and action. It features numerous real-life examples, scenarios, and adaptable materials from community activists and teachers, and it shows teachers how to think through their own situations to get started at their own pace and create action plans that, in the long run, save time and energy even as they deliver results. Chapters in the book are: (1) Entering the Conversation; (2) The Quiet Revolution: Teachers Reaching out to Parents; (3) An Introduction to Community Organizing; (4) Teachers Are Organizers: Tacit Knowledge and New Techniques; and (5) Putting It All Together: Becoming a Teacher-Organizer. (Contains 90 references.) (NKA)