Issues brought up at the International Consortium for Options in Public Education -- the role and administration of alternative schools, the function of schools, and community control -- are reviewed. (KM)

The data for the years 1969-1972 clearly support the ethnic succession-decentralization hypothesis. The new ethnic groups in New York City, the blacks, and Hispanics are achieving greater success in penetrating the school bureaucracy in the decentralized than in the centralized districts. (Author)

Argues that the question for those concerned with education and politics is to determine the possibilities, limits and likely consequences of community control of the schools or its alternatives, and that by taking particular political decisions it will be possible to shape extra-political factors so as to either to enhance or to limit the…

This study sought to provide an empirical base for a theoretical and public policy analysis of the decentralization movement in urban education. This research includes an analysis of a large number of cities for which comparative demographic and political data could be found or developed as well as a manageable number of case studies.…

This discussion is organized into four sections. In an introductory section, it is pointed out that the word "decentralization" appears to have many meanings. There is a need to clarify definitions, and to examine decentralization in a practical, working context. In Part 1, "Background and Issues", some of the major issues…

Demands for urban decentralization and community control are indexes of the inaccessibility, irresponsibility, and unresponsiveness of the institutions of urban government in the 1970's. How and why these institutions have become the focus of such widespread dissatisfaction can be understood only in the total context of urban politics in America,…

This issue of "Inequality in Education" comprises articles sampling perspectives of some attempts being made within the public school framework to gain a greater say in how and what children learn. The discussions are concentrated on efforts for (1) community control of Schools; (2) decentralization of school administration; and, (3)…

In this book, Chapter 1, "The Issues," discusses such questions as: Would community control be a step toward racial separatism, intensify social friction, be anti-libertarian, be inimical to government honesty, equity, and professionalism, reduce the capacity of local government for vigorous action and for action based on citywide considerations,…

The purpose of the study reported here was to assess the various decentralization efforts as they occurred in different services and in different cities. The study reviewed decentralization's record in terms of five outcomes: (1) Increases in the flow of information between servers and served; (2) Improvements in service officials attitudes; (3)…

The contents of the second volume in the "Pegasus Series on Decentralization and the Urban Crisis," of which Alan Altshuler is General Editor, are organized in five chapters. Chapter one, "Background to controversy," comprises discussions of such topics as the failure of integration, liberalism and race, Negro responses, and the issue of…

This study is focused on policy: How did the school decentralization law affect the recruitment and selection of board members? How did the legal matrix set the conditions for community boards to function? And how did these community boards pursue their policies in three key areas: personnel, budget, and curriculum? Social change requires a…

The belief that structural change providing for the representation of minority parents in urban school districts would improve educational services for their children has led to an emphasis on school-system controlled or affiliated channels for participation. This emphasis, based on assumptions about parent participation in suburban districts, has…