It became fashionable in the 1960's for members of the community to become involved with education, but at the same time this involvement has forced the two extreme groups in society, the rich and the poor, into an uneasy consensus about the public education system. The author points out several factors which help shape the community's attitude toward the school, including the local control issues. The community's attitude toward reading has been shaped and is being shaped, says the author, by three factors: a comparison of center-city school students' reading progress with that of students from other schools, the proposal of United States Commissioner of Education James Allen that every person has a right to read, and the appearance of black authors speaking out for blacks. The author underscores the importance of developing reading as a communicative skill that must be preceded by the development of listening and speaking skills in the center-city schools. References are included. (NH)