Two bilingual education programs serving the Puerto Rican community of East Harlem in New York City were investigated to ascertain the degree and kinds of community participation in planning, implementation, and evaluation of bilingual programs. It was found that while there are formal structures in place for involving the community, such as a district-wide bilingual parents' advisory council, these are not viewed as critical to school or program functioning by either administrators or parents. Since administrators have not taken the community's role in school affairs seriously, they have not assisted parents in organizing themselves and in acquiring the skills necessary to become truly functioning partners in school-community dialogues. Furthermore, both administrators and parents are limited in their views of the roles of community people in the schools: fundraising, general support, and help with homework were cited as possible roles, but classroom teaching, presentation of community skills and resources, or sharing of childrearing and informal education techniques were not mentioned. Parents have no real sense of forming policy and even less of evaluating it. Finally, despite outwardly good intentions, schools do not seem really interested in the kind of community participation which results in any realignment of the basic power relations between school and community. (CMG)