This article presents an experiential model for community-engaged research that understands communities as living meshworks of embodied human beings, material circumstances, and affective environments. We first trace how community organizations and academics must increasingly respond to a push for hard data. Using an analysis of a national…

A participatory framework in conducting research and implementing decisions can engage multiple constituents throughout a college community. At a small college, it is especially relevant, because nonmajority groups are especially vulnerable because of a smaller critical mass.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has emerged as an approach designed to promote community health and well-being through the establishment and maintenance of research partnerships between communities and academic researchers. Rather than the academic researcher assuming what is best for a community, CBPR utilizes community partnerships…

"Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta" is a major Alberta Education project designed to create a new framework that will help students with special needs receive the education they need to be successful. The project is comprehensive and far-reaching, and will consider the needs of students in all types of schools:…

Often superintendents and boards of education employ an expert-based, school-centered, "decide and defend" decision making approach when dealing with critical school district issues. In the case presented here, involving what to do with an historic school building, it is an approach that did not yield the result the superintendent or board of…

The major concern of this handbook is one method designed to accomplish human as well as physical development in the community--the problem identification survey method. Other methods of community development are described briefly. The problem identification survey is a method used to identify citizens to serve on a community development committee…

A survey of the community to determine health education priorities helped to develop a relevant curriculum in the schools. (JD)

The booklet, developed at Red School House for Indian communities, demonstrates visually in a cultural context the series of actions constitute a needs assessment. The illustrated text tells the story of a traditional community that is in need of food for the survival of its people. The question of how to cross the river to see if food is…

A Teacher Corps-sponsored survey of a rural town in northern Maine is described. The survey was intended to investigate the feelings of town citizens regarding their own lives, the town in which they live, and their school. It was intended to disclose the need for day or foster care centers, to find out about the levels of educational attainment…

The Shorewood (Wisconsin) public schools chose a new superintendent by establishing a search committee, hiring a consultant, surveying the community to identify desired qualities, developing an "ideal superintendent" profile for screening applications, arranging a 24-hour visit and interview process, and making their selection. (RW)

Presents a student study of the growing conditions of the Water Hyacinth and its effect on the food chain. Describes the different phases of the project including fieldwork, a public awareness survey, public involvement, control programs, and conclusions. A vignette describes beneficial uses of the Water Hyacinth. (MCO)

The Centralia 21st Century Visioning Project was undertaken by the city of Centralia, in Washington, and Centralia College to determine a vision for the city for the next century based on citizen and business input. In summer 1994, the college conducted a survey of 185 businesses from the city's downtown core to gather retailers' perceptions on…

This study considered the effectiveness of citizen advisory boards as vehicles for community input to educational decision-making. It is based on an evaluation of the Greer, South Carolina, Piedmont Schools Project, a planned experiment in comprehensive change in a K-12 school system. The data derive from community surveys, personal interviews,…

This paper outlines aspects of a community education project, which involved the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and other educational institutions and community service agencies in Pittsburgh in the provision of adult and continuing education and adult and family recreation programs. After section I provides background information on…

Long-range planning assumptions and goals are presented for Muskegon Community College (MCC) as they were submitted by a committee of area citizens. After introductory material summarizing the committee's mandate and activities, the report discusses the fiscal, demographic, curricular, and administrative changes likely to affect MCC during the…