This paper attempts to interest principals considering site-based management to examine community education as a model for their implementation efforts. The paper first examines the evolution of the community education movement, focusing on major directions and levels of maturity. Next, the unchanging principles of community education (self-determination, self-help, leadership development, localization, integrated services delivery, maximum use of resources, inclusiveness, responsiveness, and lifelong learning) are discussed. Community education's two essential components, program and process, are explained. Next, a 14-step program implementation model is presented, and the implications for site-based management are discussed. Community education and site-based management have similar principles and exhibit the same sense of mission: creating ownership for those responsible for carrying out decisions by involving them directly in the decision-making process. Because of these similarities, both could employ the same implementation strategy. However, two areas of possible conflict (the principal's leadership role and the appropriateness of principal retraining) must be resolved before adopting the model presented in this paper. (16 references) (MLH)