Everybody's House - The Schoolhouse: Best Techniques for Connecting Home, School, and Community.

Warner, C. (1997). Everybody's House - The Schoolhouse: Best Techniques for Connecting Home, School, and Community. Thousand Oakes, CA: Corwin Press, Inc. (153 pp., $59.95 hb, $27.95 pb, hb 0-8039-6485-4, pb 0-8039-6482-X)

The purposes of this book are twofold. The first is to inform school leaders about factors that need to be considered when connecting with parents, businesses, and community organizations to meet the ever growing demands placed on schools. The second is to showcase successful community outreach and involvement programs.

The book is written as an introductory, functional workbook, one in which the reader must take an active part. The target audience is primarily administrators who are beginning to consider the issues and dilemmas inherent in the dynamic process of developing meaningful relationships with the community. The author is well suited to discuss these issues as former State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Arizona and as a public speaker and consultant.

Factors that the author suggests need to be addressed include why schools need this involvement, whether parents and school staff want this type of connection, and why people join groups as well as the changing demographics of school populations, different types of family constellations and barriers to involvement. Much of the text is introductory but the author cites interesting facts, statistics and research findings to support her points and also uses anecdotal information from many sources.

After outlining the factors, the author encourages readers to actively reflect on and respond to the information. At the end of each chapter, there are a series of questions called involvement evaluations. These questions are a challenge to the reader to move beyond recognition of the need to connect with the community to true action. Questions such as "Give three reasons why you think there isn't more parent involvement in your school. How can you overcome each of these obstacles?" encourage readers to apply the ideas in the text to their own situation.

The most beneficial aspects of the book are the parts dedicated to describing successful programs. The information is presented via anecdote and description by an amazing cadre of educational leaders including over a dozen state principals of the year, nearly 20 principals of Blue Ribbon schools and many others. This information provides the reader with a spectrum of solutions that are successful in other schools. The emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of each school's situation due to different student populations, different active community groups and different fiscal constraints.

These programs range from small to large, simple to complex and rural to urban. There are 25 pages dedicated to parent and family involvement programs, 12 pages dedicated to community involvement programs and 22 pages of school-business partnerships.

The author writes under the assumption that there are no magic bullets; there is no ideal way to make this important community connection. The most important part is that action is taken. The book prompts the reader to begin the process of assessing his or her school's unique factors and exposes the reader to myriad solutions that can be adapted and implemented. While the book does not provide a magical 1-2-3 step approach of how to create or implement community programs, it provides introductory information, the right questions to ponder and shining examples of successful attempts.

Reviewed by Suzanne Bunte who teaches laboratory sciences at Pablo Casals Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois.