Howell S. Baum is Professor in the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author of several books, including most recently, The Organization of Hope: Communities Planning Themselves, also published by SUNY Press.

• Preface Acknowledgments Part 1: Introduction 1. School Reform and Educational Improvement: Challenges and Responses2. Attachment and Knowledge3. Building the Education Field: Getting Parents, Schools, and Communities Together4. Baltimore, the Schools, and the Southeast Education Task Force Part 2: Research as a Way of Getting Started 5. Getting Started, Getting Bearings Part 3: Participation 6. Creating the Southeast Education Task Force7. Organizing Networks for Southeast Education: Engaging the School System8. Organizing Networks for Southeast Education: Connecting with Parents and Community Institutions Part 4: Action 9. Doing Something10. Education and the Empowerment Zone: Participation in the Service of Action Part 5: Research as a Means to Action 11. Acting as a Way of Knowing: Action Research12. Knowing as a Means to Acting: Research for Action Part 6: Money 13. Money Matters: The Costs of Participation, Research, and Action Part 7: Tensions between Attachment and Knowledge 14. Realities and Fantasies in University-Community Partnerships15. Why Community-School Partnerships Are Unlikely16. Building Networks in Turbulent Fields: Tension between Attachment and Knowledge Part 8: Lessons and Conclusions 17. Evaluating the Southeast Education Task Force18. Can Community Action Reform Schools or Improve Education? Notes References Index