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…

Community-based programming (CBP) is a cooperative process in which a community college serves as the leader and catalyst in effecting collaboration among the people, leaders and community organizations in its service area. This report discusses the changing role of the community college, the nature of CBP, and expected outcomes of the process,…

The Innovations Program, established by the Australian Schools Commission in 1974, was a small national program aimed at fostering local actions for change in Australian primary and secondary education. In this report, the author begins by examining different approaches to educational innovation and reviewing the literature on innovation. Part 2…

The mental health needs of children and youth with learning disabilities and their families were studied in a survey of 79 human services directors in the Toronto (Canada) area. The study illustrates the importance of involving relevant communities in planning for community needs assessment and program implementation. (SLD)

The University of Guelph Rural Development Outreach Project (RDOP) as it was conceived, organized and utilized in rural communities in Ontario is the major focus of this document; the concluding sections describe some of the problems of Outreach implementation and suggest some possible courses for continuing and expanding the project. There is…

In today's wars, children are on the front lines. This handbook, the result of a meeting of psychologists and humanitarian workers, presents a strategy to meet the needs of children in war and refugee crises that intends to be cost-effective, empowering, and child-focused. The strategy emerged from field work based on the belief that each…

Sponsored by the Alaska Department of Education and supported by 25 additional organizations and school districts, the Seventh Annual Bilingual-Multicultural Education Conference (1981) was a major activity of the Department, designed to provide training assistance to all persons involved in bilingual-bicultural education programs. The conference…