Examines Detroit's economic development policy-making culture and assesses its impact on the formation of the community development corporation (CDC) network that dominated Empowerment Zone (EZ) planning in the initial stages. Analyzes the importance of distrust between City Hall, business interests, and community residents in consolidating CDC…

Compares social reform strategies in Britain and America. Illustrates how programs in both countries had similar difficulties, including diffusion of research findings, clarification of objectives, and political manipulation of social research. (SK)

Reassesses the role of the school in the black community, concluding that the devaluation of the power of the school to politically, economically and culturally develop the community has hidden "the profound and pervasive influence of the school in shaping the lives of black Americans." (Author/JM)

Empowering grassroots efforts in literacy is paramount in the literacy education movement. Six issues face literacy work, research, and policy in the United States today: (1) although there are many exciting and innovative literacy projects being conducted, their lessons are unexamined and they are not part of a larger organizing strategy; (2)…

Urban and rural development requires an innovative problem-solving mechanism that would better use the leverage inherent in available resources. There is a model of such an institution now evolving in depressed areas which warrants a substantial investment of Ford Foundation funds: the Community Development Corporation (CDC)--an organization whose…

Intended to spur policy makers, practitioners, parents, and other interested individuals to reopen rural educational issues, this volume explores "conventional wisdom" (the widely accepted assumptions and theories about rural education) and examines its merits in light of both accumulated experience and recent research. The text is…