The planning, implementation, and evaluation of Teacher Corps projects are all oriented toward the encouragement of community-based education, involving the evolution of an interactive relationship between educational institutions and the local community for purposes of program development and direction. Some aspects of the community-based education concept are explored in this compilation of three papers, the first in an intended series. The first paper, by Conrad Powell and Larry Winecoff, describes the origins and characteristics of community-based education. The basic concepts and methods needed to energize community-based education in the future are discussed by Roland Goddu, and in the third paper Eva Schindler-Rainman comments on societal trends affecting community-based education and on effective means for making educational efforts successful. (Author/PGD)