Presents an interactive electronic conversation among a group of scholars. Participants examined the nature of relationships between professionals and school communities and debated the degree to which conflict was either inevitable or useful in sustaining this connection. They tried to imagine the organizational structures and policies needed to…

Uses findings from previous studies of teacher work context to hypothesize that some features of the school workplace may contribute to greater parent involvement in urban high schools, especially home-school communication and parent volunteering. Discusses the roles of communal school organization and a context of caring. (SLD)

Study of five Catholic, four single-focus public, and four multifocus public magnet urban high schools show varying patterns of parental involvement and differing degrees of shared decision making among parents and teachers. Partnership was more evident in the Catholic schools and least apparent in the single-focus schools. (SLD)

This paper presents findings from a study that examined the relationship between school responsiveness under different choice arrangements and the processes by which families make choices about schools. The study is part of a larger, ongoing project being conducted in 16 metropolitan high schools of choice in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.;…

Findings from a study that examined the relationship between school choice and parent involvement for different ethnic groups are presented in this paper. In conjunction with a major national study of Catholic high schools, parents were asked about their reasons for school choice, type of school involvement, motivations, barriers to participation,…

Examines family-school connections and sense of place in rural Alabama, observing that rural communities and schools often have many attributes related to strong identification with place (e.g., shared norms and values). However, many other attributes of place closely connected with school-success-related elements of social capital may be present…

A study was conducted to determine the association among variables representing parent and school demographics, parents' opinions of the school, their reasons for choosing it, and their willingness to support the school in various ways, including the level of tuition they would pay. Data were collected from a stratified sample of 10 high schools…

The examination of teachers' perceptions of the role of parent and teacher participation in shared decision making provides insight on whether teachers view themselves as influencing decision making at their schools. The study explored the perceptions that Florida teachers of the year have about the involvement of teachers, administrators, and…

The relationship between parent involvement and school choice was studied with 575 parents in urban Catholic, single-focus, and multiple-focus magnet schools. Religion, income, and ethnicity were important in understanding parents' reasons for school choice, and school type was a major factor in parent choice. (SLD)

Examines literature on empowerment, and participation of parents and teachers in school decision making in the context of school governance. Discusses changing roles of parents and teachers under conditions of restructuring and examines how the changing organizational context in schools influences the nature and quality of relationships between…

Schools of choice are fast becoming part of the national debate on educational reform. This study, part of a larger study of schools and families, examined how the work context of teachers and opportunities for parent involvement differ under different choice arrangements, and investigated aspects of the sociobureaucratic context of teachers' work…

This report contains accounts of the scale construction, reliability, and validity of an instrument used to collect parent survey data in a study of Catholic inner-city high schools. The survey was designed to ascertain parents' involvement in their children's schooling based on parental knowledge, reasons for school choice, expectations and…

Teacher empowerment and parent participation in school decision making have become dominant themes in the current debate over school restructuring. The literature suggests that as teachers become empowered, they may tend to view parents more as clients of education rather than as partners, thereby introducing a potential conflict into the social…

Rural students face many challenges in gaining a sound education, but one of the advantages they have is that their schools are set in a community context that values a sense of place and offers a unique set of conditions for building social capital. A school-community partnership model of school renewal might be an appropriate means by which…

In this study, the degree of parent involvement--as measured by the amount of their participation in school-related activities, communication with teachers, and school decision-making--is examined for 1,070 parents whose at-risk children attend five innercity Catholic high schools. The variables of parents' education, religion, marital status, and…