In the past decade, local community organizations have emerged in urban centers as new participants in educational power politics, as community leaders have come to believe that education is the key to solving urban social problems and improving local communities and neighborhoods. Many school administrators, however, are reluctant to share their power and authority in the educational decision making process with neighborhood associations. One of the reasons for administrators' reluctance to share decision making is their fear of visibility and vulnerability in the community. There is no indication, however, on the part of neighborhood associations, that they wish to actually dominate educational decision making or obtain community control. Rather, they wish to work with administrators. Some administrators are currently in favor of sharing decisions. Nevertheless, in most interactions with community groups, administrators continue to assume the leader dominant role out of fear that their power will be usurped, or out of unawareness for the potential benefits of participatory educational management. Urban school administrators must realize that the longer neighborhood associations are denied participation in decision making which affects the quality of life in their communities, the more likely they are to emerge as militant pressure groups. (Author/GC)