The study described in this summary explores school and community factors that encourage parent participation in decisions that affect the quality of children's schooling. Its primary objective was to identify and compare factors that foster parent networks around school issues in suburban and urban areas. Five groups mobilized by middle class parents in the early 1970s to promote reforms in a suburban New York school district were identified, and their role in fostering school related networks was reviewed. Next, a description of formal arrangements that allow for parental involvement in this school district were contrasted to opportunities for minority parent involvement in schools in five Chicago neighborhoods. Based on differences in parent participation in the two study areas, several recommendations were offered: (1) provide support for independent groups that are interested in reforming schools; (2) develop new procedures to represent and validate parental concerns; (3) implement training programs for parents to increase their access to new ideas; and (4) foster clarification of parents' role and promotion of meaningful parent participation by administrators and school personnel. (AOS)