The controversy over the decentralization of schools focuses essentially on the issue of community control. This article explores the current status of decentralization and evaluates its effectiveness as a vehicle for community influence and educational reform. (Author/WD)

This publication consists of two separate but related parts, a handbook that discusses possible approaches to developing improved school-community collaboration and a resource directory that lists approximately 800 agencies and publications that may be helpful to educators and citizens who are contemplating some type of collaborative arrangement.…

Court-ordered citizen monitoring of school desegregation does little to increase participation in school politics by minorities, women, the powerless, or the uninvolved. The greatest effects of increasing community involvement are likely to be a little more effective desegregation and much more power and participation for those who already have…

Contrasts community control with community participation in administratively decentralized schools. Lists large school districts in the U.S. which have been decentralized and discusses attitudes of school officials toward community involvement in public schools. Calls for more research on the effects of decentralization and community control on…

Discusses the history of community control of public education, examining: sub-regional communities (New York City's community school boards and Detroit's regional decentralization); school-based decentralization (preserving professional privilege in Salt Lake City and local school councils in Chicago); balancing bottom-up and top-down; whether…

Reviews the impact of collective bargaining on school policy and identifies the appearance of multilateral bargaining as a function of the decentralization movement and parent group demands for participation in collective negotiations. (Author)

There are many different forms of community involvement and citizen participation in the schools. But while the quantity is high, the quality and impact are lagging far behind. The author (who is president of the Institute for Responsive Education) advocates the reintroduction of democratic values into education. Through school-based management,…

To understand the kind of education that Black young people are receiving, it is necessary to examine schooling in the context of racism and economic exploitation within the larger society. Because economic and business interests in education are so enormous, Black community control of education is particularly difficult. (Author/GC)

Examines superintendents' attitudes toward community participation at the advisory and control levels in four areas of educational policy-making. (Author)

Some problems have been encountered in large school districts where decentralization has taken the form of community control. The idea of community schools, whereby the schools serve as key institutions in providing services and resources for all its residents, is discussed. (CJ)

The past 50 years have witnessed a vast transformation of public education from tens of thousands of relatively independent, "grass roots," citizen-controlled school districts to centrally controlled, massive bureaucracies. Ten recommendations are made which would bring public education back under the control of ordinary citizens. (RM)

Articulates profitable routes to institutional reform for people dissatisfied with the quality of social service provided by the institution of which they are part. Argues that the creation of cultural and institutional democracy requires recognition of clients as constituents, and some elements of participatory decision making, community control,…

The movement for community control of schools allowed for the participation of parents in educational policy with regard to their local schools. This movement was aimed at increasing the participation of inner city parents in the schools. This movement has currently slowed down. In large metropolitan areas, the size of the educational system has…

Describes how one school is blending the traditional and the modern under the direction of an all-Indian board of education. (IRT)

This resource guide addresses Outcome 8 of Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA), which was adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education in 1991, to be implemented in all school districts by 1994-95. QPA's stated purpose is to prepare learners to live, learn, and work in a global society. Ten outcomes are identified for schools and communities…