Site-based management tries to transform schools into communities where the appropriate people participate constructively in major decisions affecting them. Effective site councils have a well-designed community structure, enabling leadership, student and adult learning focus, and a schoolwide perspective. Districts should provide long-term…

An unnatural, selective school crisis envelopes the poor, the cities, and Latino and African American communities. Structures of privilege and oppression apparent in the larger society are mirrored in schools. The perspectives of principal Deborah Meier, novelist Toni Morrison, and poet Adrienne Rich lend credence to empowerment and…