Based on 11 diverse Asian American (AA) communities, this article discusses the similarities and differences across East, South, and Southeast Asians. Of two parts in this journal issue, Part 1 presents a review of literature and census data to understand the cultural and structural factors of different types of coethnic communities (strong, weak,…

Based on 135 ethnic afterschool programs and language schools, this descriptive study (Part 2 of 2 in this issue) revealed differences in the types of programs housed within East, South, and Southeast Asian coethnic communities (strong, weak, or dispersed) in the U.S. The article applies a combined cultural-structural framework to understand…

Based on findings from a recent qualitative study utilizing grounded theory methodology, in this essay, the authors focus on the building of community within the classroom by emphasizing classroom discourse as an essential component of instruction in exemplary teachers' classrooms. The authors then provide insights as to how to encourage and…

Geography does not make community, nor does membership or casual affiliation. When the school functions as a community, its constituents associate, share common educational values, and become responsible for one another. As this journal issue shows, teachers are not isolated practitioners but professionals integrated into the web of community and…

At the 1991 PTA convention, the delegates called for developing a comprehensive parent involvement program in every elementary school. Local PTAs could explore and implement the school-as-community philosophy by selecting appropriate programs and activities, such as Parents in Partnership, Megaskills Workshops, Alliance for Achievement Model,…

Alliance for Achievement is a community-building model allowing the principal, teachers, and parents to articulate a common base of educational values, set goals, and develop expectations for one another. Supporting Roland Barth's recommendations, the model helps principals articulate a mission and share authority and responsibility for attaining…

Caring, a valued attribute, might fade from attention unless it is shown to benefit children academically and socially and becomes readily available in school and classroom communities. This paper provides rationale and context by grounding caring in the research on sense of community and belonging. Although findings for students are…

Outlines a working definition of school community, traces connections between definitional components of community and children's learning, and suggests ways to measure school community components to establish a school-improvement indicator. Results of a parent/teacher survey explore community components such as shared educational values,…

A metaphor to guide our understanding of classroom community is weaving, where each individual strand (shared leadership, communication, responsiveness, moral unity, cooperation, shared environment and history, identification/involvement, wholeness, and interdependence) interacts with others to form an integrated whole. A classroom comprises…

Conducting question-and-answer sessions among teachers, parents, and mental health professionals can build a tighter home-school community while improving children's quality of life. This article presents the gist of one such meeting with three child psychoanalysts, early childhood-education professors, preschool parents, and teachers. Analysts…

Provides a narrative review of some literature--research, theory, and commentary--conveying the concept of school as community. Reviews sociological writings about community over two centuries and merges this line of thought with contemporary inquiry into the social contexts of schooling, including family relationships. (34 references) (MLH)

Ponders possible explanations for the connections among chaos, complexity, and a learning community. Challenges the Newtonian world model, suggests that the world operates in a complex, nonlinear, unpredictable pattern, and calls for a new science to understand this complexity. A true learning community values individual autonomy, risk taking,…

Investigates sense of community at Midwestern school district's middle and high schools. Finds, for example, that regardless of school level, teachers rated "teacher to student" interactions and relationships significantly more positively than did students. Recommends schools' sense of community be enhanced by integrating opportunities for…

The 1966 Coleman report found that minority children began school with educational deficiencies and performed better in schools with predominantly middle-class student bodies. Some highly political responses to this report have been political and structural (e.g., busing and choice). Two school-initiated responses that avoid reshuffling students…

The politics of division arises from applying formal organizational theories of governance, management, and leadership to schools. Rational-choice theory and cultural pluralism lack the unifying power of civic virtue. Creating a politics of virtue requires that we renew commitments to our nation's democratic legacy. Principals must practice…