As the US federal government forces states to create centralized systems of accountability, the notion of a ‘community’ school becomes less and less defined by decisions on core curriculum. Yet, the idea of a school as community survives through the local politics of education or the policies of magnet and charter schools with small student populations. This collection will explore the extent to which our collective notions of school-community relations have prevented us from speaking openly about the tensions created when we imagine schools as communities.