Parents in Search of Community Influence in the Public Schools

The article reports on a study conducted in May, 1968, 8 months after the creation of 3 demonstration projects in the New York Sch system. About 600 parents in the 3 projects, Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 2 Bridges & IS 201, were interviewed. The parents were asked whether they want more or less community control & more or less decentralization. The answers to these questions were r'ed with the parents' SE characteristics. It was found that the higher the parents' educ, the more likely they were to favor more community influence. Income & occup had no influence. The Influence of the race factor differed from one area to another. The parents' wanting more or less community influence on Sch's were r'ed with the parents' assessment of teachers, with their assessment of educ'al leaders, with their assessment of how Sch officials would respond to parental problems, with their assessment of who Sch officials respond to most, with their assessment of community influence in running the Sch's, with their assessment of what single group would & should be influential under a strong decentralization program, with their assessment of how friends & community would react if the R should take a public stand on controversial issues, with parents voting in the last election for members of the local governing board & with parents' position on Sch integration, bussing & expanding the Sch system. In general, it was found that the parents who favored greater community control were more critical of the Sch system, of admin'ors & of teachers &preferred the local official to the distant official. They were also the more active people &, if not community leaders themselves, more active supporters of community leaders. The parents who wanted less community control exhibited traits opposite of those of the former group but, since they are less decisive in their opinions, they probably can be more easily swung by proper leadership. A majority of the parents were found to favor greater community control. A. Peskin.