Community involvement protects students from the adverse impact of school failure in several ways that are particularly important for African Americans. Issues of program design, informal community involvement, and community contributions to school outcomes merit further study. (SLD)

This review examines literature on the community's role in the achievement and psychosocial outcomes of disadvantaged students. It identifies three classes of factors as pertinent: community structure, community climate, and community involvement. Community characteristics were found to have only a weak effect on achievement at the individual…

Develops a framework for promoting effective coaching, in the sense of encouraging children's achievement, in community settings for children of different ages. Effective coaches perform the following tasks: (1) teach; (2) assess performance; (3) structure the learning environment; and (4) provide social support. (SLD)

Evaluation after two years of Project RAISE, a multifaceted program with seven community sponsors in the large Baltimore (Maryland) school district, indicates the effectiveness of using community adults as advocates and mentors in improving student attendance and some report card grades, but not promotion rates or standardized test scores. (SLD)

Community involvement is conceptualized as a typology of the following processes of social change: (1) conversion; (2) mobilization; (3) allocation of resources; and (4) instruction. The effects of these forms of involvement are considered in a review of 13 evaluations of programs for disadvantaged youth involving the community. (SLD)

The effects on selected student outcomes are evaluated after 2 years of operation of Project RAISE, a multifaceted approach to helping at-risk students featuring outside adults as school-based advocates and one-on-one mentors at seven middle schools in Baltimore (Maryland). Seven community sponsoring groups (churches, universities, businesses, and…