The validity of citizen judgments in community interventions: I. Judgments of community need

Several major reviews of educational innovation projects have recently suggested that self‐perceived need for change is a critical factor in the successful implementation of an educational intervention. A field study of community change interventions in six rural school districts was conducted to determine whether the communities' self perceived need for change was in fact related to their degree of involvement in the change process. Such a relationship was confirmed. Of four indicators employed, a global, high inference measure of community need proved to be most effective in predicting level of community involvement.