Designed to be perused at any point, this book is for people who understand that creating and maintaining good public schools is a never-ending effort requiring everyone's attention. The book has four main sections: introduction, strategies, background information, and resources. The introduction discusses some problems facing today's schools and how citizen involvement can help solve them. Volunteers should consider where help is most needed and their specific skills, knowledge, interests, and available time. Section 2 contains specific strategies for helping schools, ranging from easy-to-do activities (voting and donating goods and services) to 20 other strategies taking more time and effort and delivering a bigger payoff. The third section contains a capsule history of the public schools, describes their current condition and recent reform efforts, and reviews characteristics of effective schools. This section concludes with advice about increasing citizen effectiveness at working with public schools and where to go for more information. The final section contains an annotated list of resource organizations, a bibliography of 90 books and articles, and a glossary. Appendices contain sample school-mission statements; sample foundation names, bylaws, and brochures; a sample project budget; a list of model corporation programs; and a directory of state education departments. Endnotes and an index are also provided. (MLH)