Long-standing discriminatory practices and systematic barriers have perpetuated inequitable access to early childhood resources and opportunities for families living in the United States due to race and ethnicity, income, geographic location, primary languages, gender, and other characteristics. To adequately understand whether child care is…

The Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) distributes state funding for preschool and birth-to-three programs in Illinois. The authors conducted a case study in Evanston, a city in north Cook County, Illinois, interviewing community representatives and analyzing ECBG program data to discern how ECBG funds are used to provide early childhood services.…

More districts realize that communicating in a clear and engaging way with stakeholders about everything from the district's overall education vision to scholastic and extracurricular success stories can go a long way toward enlisting broad community support. And although face-to-face communications are still important, technology provides a…

This piece explores questions of power, conflict, and community in education through a story of Chicago educators engaging in experiential inquiry processes. One of these processes is a "Theatre of the Oppressed" exercise for dealing with conflict in education settings. The other process described here focuses on a text that emerged from…

While educators have long argued that when local schools are successful, local communities benefit; there's now clear evidence that is the case. A new report, "The Economic Benefits from Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businesses in the Nation's Largest Metropolitan Areas," released in January by the Alliance for Excellent Education…

This report complements a national survey of outdoor arts festivals (see "Live from Your Neighborhood: A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals, Volume One: Summary Report") by focusing on seven case study festivals: Houston International Festival; Piccolo Spoleto; Lowell Folk Festival; Santa Fe Indian Market; Chicago Jazz Festival;…

Notes that adoptive families have formal (agency-related) and informal (indigenous) resources to draw on for assistance with a variety of issues. Describes Hope for the Children (HFTC) program located in Rantoul, Illinois, a created community designed to foster permanence of special-needs adoptions, in which adoptive families live alongside agency…

Presented are the results of a survey of elementary school teachers in the state of Illinois. Results are compared to a previous survey conducted 10 years earlier. Discussed are obstacles to science instruction, teacher training, teacher attitudes, student evaluation, and school and community support. (CW)

Describes how the Magwood Public Library (Cook County, Illinois) successfully passed a $6.5 million tax referendum. Recommends showing the need for expansion, hiring an architectural firm to conduct a feasibility study, detailing the costs, securing community support, emphasizing cost effectiveness, and promoting the proposal. (AEF)

Although 80%-85% of high school graduates in Geneseo, Illinois intended to enroll in postsecondary institutions, only 30%-40% completed the ACT-recommended college core curriculum and even fewer (10%-12%) enrolled in credit-based transition programs, such as AP or dual or concurrent enrollment courses. Students were fulfilling the high school…

Illinois School District 151 is the first Northern court ordered desegregated school system. Prior studies indicate that community members do not support the district. This Title III project has as its major goal to increase the areas of support and reduce the areas of nonsupport, in order to provide an invigorating stimulating educational…

Although curriculum issues still command reformers' attention, researchers recognize that academic success is tied to home and community support. Alliance for Achievement is a school-community management program that addresses the relationships among schools, homes, and communities based on locally defined and commonly held educational values. The…

This report is a 1983 update on corporal punishment prepared for the Illinois State Board of Education. It gives a historical perspective and reviews the practices in selected states and metropolitan districts. Corporal punishment is allowed in 46 states; 4 states prohibit it. Among large school districts in metropolitan areas there is a tendency…

Describes three programs provided by Family Focus, Inc., a private, nonprofit agency established in Chicago in 1976 by citizens to demonstrate the effectiveness of providing community-based support services to expectant parents and families with young children. (Author/RH)

In a study of the critical factors affecting local decision making on school fiscal policy, socioeconomic factors, educational leadership, and community power structure were related to one another and to local financial effort in relation to ability. The study included 122 school districts of 20,000 population and above located in the states of…