Because well designed schools respect and reflect the strengths of the communities they serve, CES believes, school design teams must research the answers to such questions as these:

• What priorities does the parent community have for this school?
• What are this community’s demographic trends?
• What role might teachers’ unions play in the school redesign?
• What other schools serve this community? Who would be drawn to a significantly redesigned school?
• What individual people, businesses, and community-based organizations might play partner roles?