Americans are probably more aware today of the changing school population than at any time in the history of our nation's education system. Towns and communities that historically have been composed of one or two racial or ethnic groups find their public schools enrolling children from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds.

During 1988-1991, public school enrollment increased by one million students, with over three-quarters of this growth due to Hispanic and Asian students.

These shifting demographics represent new kinds of challenges for American education, many of which are being addressed within the school reform movement.

School reformers and concerned community members are coming together for genuine and sustained deliberation about their expectations of schools and the strategies that they are willing to support to create and sustain change. Public deliberation offers the reform movement the opportunity to bring communities and schools together. Schools must include the perspectives of linguistically and culturally diverse students and their families. Without common understanding among all segments of society regarding educational goals and ways of measuring progress, most reform strategies are likely to be short-lived and ineffective, at least with regard to the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Public Deliberation: A Tool for Connecting School Reform and Diversity was developed in conjunction with SEDL's Diversity in Dialogue project, which examines conditions and factors that support or hinder the public deliberation process as diverse groups come together for genuine and sustained discussion about public education. This guide discusses how public deliberation can be used to bring schools and communities with linguistic and cultural diversity together to focus on the topic of school reform. It also provides a description of and purpose for public deliberation and a summary of three public engagement formats, with organizations that offer training and technical assistance. The appendix furnishes a list of resources, including recommended articles featuring communities that have used public deliberation to change their schools.

This paper is not intended to provide an exhaustive discussion of public engagement formats and resources. Instead, it is designed to be an initial source as schools and communities consider integrating public deliberation engagements into school reform plans.