ABSTRACT
Most teachers, along with society at large, agree that children's homes and communities affect school performance. Judgments made about home and community characteristics can lead, however, to conclusions that certain home and community environments simply cannot provide the social, emotional, cultural, and educational capital needed to support school learning. Deficit evaluations made by teachers of some homes and communities contribute to barriers to home–school–community collaborations directly focused on school performance. The predominant thinking on family and community involvement in education emerges from an "educentric" perspective. Many children benefit from school structures and practices that support their cultural backgrounds and communication styles. Strained relations between schools and communities are manifested in many ways. Some communities have large numbers of private or parochial schools, which may signal a level of discontent with local public schools among substantial numbers of community residents. Many schools are connecting with communities to support educational experiences of students or serve more effectively the needs of community residents.
