We are, for the second time in a hundred years, experiencing a revolution in the politics of education. In the 1890s municipal reform wrested control of urban school systems from city political machines and their neighborhood subunits. Since then the structure of school government has rested on two types of legitimacy. These are a belief in…

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,…

Current interest in control of schools is a struggle for economic influence rather than genuine educational concerns, and in urban areas is generally a struggle between black and whites. A systems approach, claims author, is an alternative for sharing control and responsibility. (DS)

This report examines the difficulties faced by the San Francisco school district in attempting school integration, and places these events in the context of the national picture of urban school desegregation. Chapter I describes the kind of community pressures to which the school board was exposed, and how the school board responded to these…

When local school board members in New York City assumed office on 31 local school boards in 1969, this should have resulted in more responsive local boards with sufficient power to control local policy; but this was not the actual result. Specific examination of the decentralization bill, the politics of the election, and the election procedures…