Geography does not make community, nor does membership or casual affiliation. When the school functions as a community, its constituents associate, share common educational values, and become responsible for one another. As this journal issue shows, teachers are not isolated practitioners but professionals integrated into the web of community and…

Outlines a working definition of school community, traces connections between definitional components of community and children's learning, and suggests ways to measure school community components to establish a school-improvement indicator. Results of a parent/teacher survey explore community components such as shared educational values,…

Provides a narrative review of some literature--research, theory, and commentary--conveying the concept of school as community. Reviews sociological writings about community over two centuries and merges this line of thought with contemporary inquiry into the social contexts of schooling, including family relationships. (34 references) (MLH)

The 1966 Coleman report found that minority children began school with educational deficiencies and performed better in schools with predominantly middle-class student bodies. Some highly political responses to this report have been political and structural (e.g., busing and choice). Two school-initiated responses that avoid reshuffling students…