The National Forum on Effective Urban and Metropolitan Schooling met to discuss building communities and curriculum as part of a larger effort to support an agenda of achievement, competency, and success for urban education. This report of that 1989 meeting is divided into two parts. The first part lists and defines the following 10 themes for the new urban agenda: (1) promoting integrated decentralization; (2) expanding access to knowledge; (3) activating learning; (4) reconstructing functional communities; (5) strengthening team development; (6) collaborating for inquiry; (7) redefining knowledge; (8) revamping traditional assessment; (9) sustaining cosmetic and/or systemic change; and (10) energizing political advocates. The report's second part presents edited versions of reports of the work groups that were presented in the final plenary session of the forum. The following are the topics of those study groups: (1) the requirements for building communities for effective change in urban schools; (2) mathematics and science; (3) reading comprehension revisited; (4) curriculum and instruction; (5) role of assessment in educational outcomes; (6) improving thinking skills of students; (7) community issues related to urban reform; (8) the role of business and foundations in school reform; and (9) the role of government in building school communities. The report also includes a description of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education. (JB)