Recent study of emergent collaborative bargaining processes in several urban school districts charts typical bumpy progression from wrangling to genuine cooperative problem solving among teachers, administrators, and unions. Rules of power game change when one party makes first move toward open communication and trust building, when teachers and…

The City Magnet School in Lowell, Massachusetts, involves parents in policymaking, the principal and teachers in curriculum-setting and budgeting, and the kindergarten to eighth-grade students in defining the design and operation of the simulated "real world" society that forms the context in which the school's educational efforts occur.…