Following discussion of the first approach, two mothers in one of the Round Rock groups said everyone felt that setting expectations was important, but Kay Tresca, whose 8th grade son attends middle school in the district, felt some tension surrounding that idea.

“Whatever standards we set have to make them successful,” she said, “But that’s not all that makes them good people,”

Sophia Roame, who has three children in Round Rock schools, felt some frustration, because she’s not sure wealthier people fully understand the significance of the problem or how they contribute to it.

“They say it’s an economic thing, because they’ve lived in a wealthy white community, yet live with a nanny and they’re traveling (a lot), so the level of attention to their children isn’t there.”

According to Taylor Willingham, Director of Texas Forums, an initiative of the LBJ Library, the difficulty in getting to action results from dealing with abstract ideas, like the ones articulated by the two women.

“(People say) we need to have better relations with our teachers. We had to push and say, ‘What are you going to do to make that happen?’

To help focus the discussions, Willingham said, organizers localized the Kettering guide to include area statistics and turned it into a workbook with action-oriented questions at the end of each approach. “What are the things from this approach we want to keep? What don’t we want to have happen? Did we identify any action items during our deliberation?”

In training more than 100 moderators, Willingham emphasized the importance of getting to those questions. But even with the help of a script, some moderators weren’t up to the task, she said, especially in one group where a few strong personalities clashed. Still, that group wanted to keep meeting to work out their differences, and all of the groups in Round Rock agreed that more deliberative conversations around this issue need to take place.

Willingham said she and others are learning some new systems for dealing with dialogue on a large scale. In their final two-hour session, for example, Round Rock participants were asked to list stakeholder actions, things that the community, region, schools and administrators and individuals could do. The groups re-combined and also took a look at the lists, which included: a volunteer pool, mentoring, sharing best practices, legislative lobbying, stronger school communication with parents and the community, school flexibility in terms of class size and length, individual networking and more forums for students and adults. On the way out, individuals could write their names and phone numbers next to items they thought they could contribute to. That information will be passed on to the school district.

In addition to Round Rock, about 300 people have attended forums in Austin, the suburbs of Manor and Eanes, and the small towns of San Marcos and Bastrop.

Susan Dawson, Executive Director of E3 Alliance, the regional education collaborative that started the Central Texas project, said individuals have been spurred to action.

“People have signed on the dotted line in droves,” she said. “We have to work together to take action. They wanted a sustainable process for change and at least we’re on the road to achieving that.”

She’s also pleased that dialogues in all six communities have been nuanced and complex, that the small groups produced cohesion, that fears going in about the process spinning out of control didn’t happen, and that superintendents have been pleased with the ideas they’ve heard.

Patty Shafer, Superintendent of the San Marcos School District, floated among the discussion groups during the town’s first session and was impressed by the “lively and intense discussions.”

“The principals in the district were assigned to various groups to participate,” she wrote in an email. “Some liked having school administrators as a part of the groups, but some thought that it inhibited conversations.”

Shafer planned to minimize school officials’ role in subsequent forums. Taylor Willingham said teachers who participated also felt a little intimidated by the conversations going in.

“I heard comments from teachers, and there was some apprehension about speaking up, so there’s still a lot of trust-building that needs to go on,” she said. “They’re in a beleaguered position right now. Teachers are feeling beaten up by all the testing.”

The next test for Central Texas will come on November 15th, when delegates from each of the six communities will meet to come up with a regional action plan that will be presented to public officials in late January at a leaders’ summit.