The prominence of agenda items, the attendant controversy, and changes proposed in 5 areas of education reform were studied in 33 urban school districts during 1992 to 1995. Only a tiny fraction of the study of American politics has focused on school boards, their attendant bureaucracies, and the local political issues involved. This paper explored the school reform agenda of the early 1990s, asking what types of change were most prevalent, and whether issues forced each other off local agenda or bundled into cohesive education agenda. Whether variation in school reform efforts has been caused by community demands was also considered. The findings imply that education reforms have fared unevenly, with those that affect students directly being relatively more controversial and more subject to inter-district variation than those dealing with internal system affairs. School agendas proved to be much more elastic in capacity than those of electorates or national legislatures, in that issues tended to be considered en masse when they received attention. It also was shown that education reform was not accelerated by local dissatisfaction with schools, a finding that leaves open the question of what does explain reform efforts. This study is the first effort of what will eventually be a study of 57 urban districts. (Contains 8 figures, 7 tables, and 54 references.) (Author/SLD)