The primary purpose of this guidebook is to support a learning community that promotes the growth, quality, and sustainability of Community Schools across Wisconsin. This document provides an overview of Community School models and supports, including: a list of the current districts implementing Community Schools in Wisconsin; information on how…

When the Model Work Standards were first crafted more than two decades ago, they were built on the premise that quality child care jobs are the cornerstone of high-quality services for children and families. The intent of these standards is to make it possible for those who choose family child care as a career to reasonably and responsibly support…

The instructional programs educators design to help English Learner (EL) students work toward English proficiency look different in schools across the United States. This is due in part to the variety of approaches K-12 educators take to important questions such as: Should the program foster bilingualism or focus solely on English? Should ELs…

For the past 12 years, the Cowen Institute has published the "State of Public Education in New Orleans" ("SPENO") on a near annual basis. During that time, the purpose, content, and audience of the report have evolved. This edition of the report is a snapshot of public education in the current academic year using aggregated…

This paper defines the concept of "improvement infrastructure" and "educational capital" for education, and it uses the case of the National Writing Project to develop an extended, data-based illustration of the design and generativeness of an improvement infrastructure. Since 1983 there have been multiple "waves" of…

This evaluation report describes the process by which a large, urban-suburban school system evaluated its vocational education program and the results of the evaluation. The evaluation was built upon a set of broad evaluation questions addressing two components of the vocational-technical program: (1) questions related to employer needs and…

The final report describes activities and products of a 3-year project to prepare private sector volunteers to become actively involved in special education through a networking system of industry-education partnerships. Using a trainer of trainers model, the project conducted workshops and produced a training package which includes a program…

Part of a series on economic recovery strategies and techniques for assessing, managing, and mitigating the impacts of economic decline resulting from plant closures, substantial layoffs, or plant relocation, this paper presents a model local leaders can use to analyze, plan, and organize activities. As a means of illustrating the kinds of impacts…

Extension community resource development (CRD) is primarily public affairs education at the local level, dealing with local issues. Two methods of public policy education are the advocacy model which picks two people with opposing views on a subject and lets them debate the issue, and the public policy education process which provides all relevant…

Recent studies of rural manufacturing employment have presented conflicting evidence about the relationship between human capital and local economic development at a time when competing claims for local investment funds could potentially undermine support for public education. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) develop the conceptual linkage…

An ever-expanding body of social science research indicates that school is the single best avenue out of poverty, and educational achievement is now the most accurate predictor of a person's future economic success. Therefore, to help school districts, schools, parents, and community leaders improve the education of disadvantaged children, a wide…

The packet consists of information derived from several sources on models for delivering services to rural handicapped students. The first part of the packet defines "rural," followed by a discussion of factors hindering rural service delivery and a model describing the continuum of services in rural areas. Seven model programs and projects from…

As part of a series of reports designed to support the implementation of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families Act and to provide comprehensive and authoritative information on critical issues concerning young children and families in California, this report examines home visiting as a service delivery strategy for early…

In recent years, social programs for the poor have lost the support of the American public. This book describes some of the very best programs and documents their benefits, demonstrating that we can, in fact, make substantial progress in the fight against educational failure, family dissolution, violent crime, substance abuse, unemployment, and…

As part of a series of reports designed to support the implementation of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families Act and to provide comprehensive and authoritative information on critical issues concerning young children and families in California, this report examines how child health services can be improved to support two related…