The issue of community control concerns the future role of parents in a changing school environment. It is vital that parental involvement be channeled toward positive and realistic goals such as defining the needs of children and determining how to meet these needs. To give parents access to decisionmakers, school boards should consider holding…

Six school board members discuss the most crucial community relations problems facing their school system and what their school boards can and should do about them. (MF)

Advocates community control of urban schools through the fair representation of minority and low income groups on local school boards. Holds that schools must reinforce and support the culture, values, and identities of minority children if they are to prepare these groups for success in the world. (GC)

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…