This article examines national conservative political advocacy groups' growing interest in local politics, and analyzes how they form alliances and gain political power. Following efforts to restrict collective bargaining for Wisconsin public employees, Kenosha school board members' attempts to legally protect teachers' rights provoked concern…

This article analyzes the use of research evidence in school-board deliberations in three school districts in Wisconsin. In these settings, the circulation, meaning, and function of research depended importantly on the interests and backgrounds of advocates, the composition of audiences, and the values and contexts of decision-making. Board…

This paper argues that political conflict over educational policy at the local level is cultural in its origins and represents a deep division in U.S. society about the values that should be taught in the public schools. The research reported in the paper focused on a single case study of a recall election in the Orange Unified School District…

The involvement of parents in the community school board elections in New York City in May 1989 was to be closely watched. Puerto Rican and other minority parents must seize the opportunity provided by the elections as a first step toward determining the educational agenda for their children. (SLD)

"The Imperfect Union" recounts the experiences of "Killmer," Illinois, from 1975 to 1979 while the village of 900 persons sought to fight the closing of its elementary school by seceeding from the consolidated school district ("Unit 110") to which it belonged. "Unit 110" is represented as an imperfect…