Traditional teacher preparation pathways begin with a teacher preparation program based in an institution of higher education (IHE) and often include a student-teaching component at a local education agency (LEA). Teacher residency programs, on the other hand, offer an alternative pathway rooted in partnerships between IHEs and LEAs. In this…

This study examines the ethics and politics of knowledge across 15 distinctive community-engaged research projects. We focus our analysis on interviews with community partners and consider their perceptions of research, academic research partners, motivations for partnering, and the benefits and challenges of community-engaged research. We…

Community partnerships empower charter schools by strengthening their capacity to serve the needs of students, families, and staff through deliberate partnerships with community-based entities. The autonomy that charter schools are afforded uniquely equips them with the flexibility to engage partners and even design schools for which one or more…

California recently overhauled its K-12 public education finance system. Enacted in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) replaced California's 40-year-old funding formula. The LCFF increases district officials' fiscal flexibility; provides more resources to districts serving larger proportions of low-income, English learner (EL), and…

This study reports on an evaluation of the "Reading Partners" program, which uses community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring to struggling readers in underresourced elementary schools. Established in 1999 in East Menlo Park, California, the mission of "Reading Partners" is to help children become lifelong readers by…

This article summarizes the initial, collaborative implementation efforts of a school-based conflict resolution program. Lowell elementary School is predominately Hispanic and located in one of the poorest areas of Fresno. The University's Kremen School of Education and Human Development partners with local educators to train children in grades…

When the five-member Board of the Alameda Unified School District selected Kirsten Vital as the new superintendent in 2009, they chose someone from outside their tight-knit community. Board Trustee Margie Sherratt thought Vital was chosen to "get us moving," to be a change agent on closing the achievement gap. Vital, in her initial…

Bottom-up reform as a policy strategy for decades has faltered in implementation. This article starts from the premise that these disappointing results stem from researchers' and practitioners' almost exclusive focus on implementation in schools or on what some call "the bottom" of hierarchical education systems but not shifts in policy…

This document discusses the Small Business Development Center initiative which addresses the needs of California businesses to grow through the delivery of one-on-one counseling, seminars, workshops, conferences, and other technical activities. The community colleges host 21 full centers. Some of the major objectives of the initiative are the…

This paper contains the revised drug education guidelines for the state of California, which emphasize prevention of alcohol and drug abuse. The materials define school-based alcohol and drug abuse prevention programming as a comprehensive process that not only provides students with accurate information about alcohol and drugs, but also enhances…

In order to assess the effectiveness of the Career Education Incentive Act (CEIA) of 1977, data were collected from a review of eight states' fiscal 1980 and 1981 annual reports as well as from a study conducted by the American Institutes for Research. According to these data, CEIA monies have indeed been allotted and matched as prescribed by the…

The Free to Grow pilot project, developed by the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and its Head Start project, operated between 1994 and 1999. Following a 2-year planning and development stage, 5 project sites went on to complete the 3-year implementation phase in California, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, and Puerto Rico; the…

This document presents a report from a task force composed of scholars, professionals, and community leaders to the State of California and the University of California (UC) addressing issues affecting Latinos in California. The following major recommendations are discussed: (1) continuing research must be undertaken concerning dynamic changes and…

This article describes a two-phase community and academic collaboration funded by the California Collaborative Research Initiative to develop and test the feasibility of an innovative HIV prevention program relevant to the needs of the population of inner-city Latino teen parenting couples and realistic for implementation in community settings.…

Relates how character education can be quickly incorporated into the curriculum when teachers, the school, and the community share mutual goals and work as a team. Outlines some of the techniques used such as devoting each month to a specific character attribute and sending home newsletters to keep parents informed. (MJP)