Children and Their Caretakers

There are three levels of justification for the community-centered participatory approaches being advanced as alternatives for urban educational reform. They are conceptual level, that is, the theoretical assumptions on which the community participation plans are based, the educational input level, and the output level. Participatory efforts as decentralization and community control can be viewed as necessary steps toward a stage of integration. The theoretical principle deals with socialization, that is, the broader processes of growth, development and cultural transmission. The chapter presents a concept, which concerns public accountability and control of education. If the schools are largely segregated and an inferior quality of education is continued, the natural approach seems to be for the community to take a hand in reshaping the institution toward quality education. In the society, building a new model of education requires direct participation by parents, students, and other citizens.