Cross-sector collaborations can generate the resources and political will necessary to tackle urgent, complex issues. Because these partnerships involve local leaders, they are typically responsive to their surrounding communities, addressing local concerns, and capitalizing upon local assets. These strengths-oriented, locally driven…

In this article, the author explores local culture and local cultural practices in an attempt to understand the forces and influences that have affected the development of a local identity as well as the persistence of Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole) as its language. The author begins with an introductory discussion of themes that emerge in two short…

Drawing on forty years of distinguished service in delinquency prevention, John Calhoun, founder of the National Crime Prevention Council, lays out the essential ingredients for preventing violence. These include strategies for connecting with alienated youth, building community norms of caring, reducing access of weapons of violence, and claiming…

Standardized test scores (STS) should be used on a local level: (1) as one component of evaluation of a student, school, or district; (2) to draw as much interpretive meaning from a norm-referenced test (NRT) as their structure will support; (3) as a communication device with students, parents, the public, and professional staff; (4) to check…

''Coming home to eat'' [Nabhan, 2002. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. Norton, New York] has become a clarion call among alternative food movement activists. Most food activist discourse makes a strong connection between the localization of food systems and the promotion of environmental sustainability and social…

This paper is divided into two parts. The purpose of Part I is the review of some of the history of school average norms, beginning with Dr. E. F. Lindquist's call for such norms in 1948; the development of such norms for standardized achievement tests; current policies and practices regarding aggregated school data; and a presentation of norms…

Responds to the article entitled, "The REFLECT Approach to Literacy: Some Issues of Method," by Caroline Dyer and Archana Choksi. Contends that certain key principles were overlooked in their three-month experiment on REFLECT: (1) local ownership and control; (2) an internal community process; and (3) an integration of literacy and empowerment.…

Specific recommendations are made concerning the circumstances under which the benefits of out-of-level testing outweigh the problems associated with it. Topics explored are: various methods for deciding when a set of test scores is invalid and the utility of these methods for local evaluators, the accuracy of vertical scaling, and the usefulness…

Explores the content of middle school reforms, focusing on how they diverge from conventional school practices, school norms, and school politics. Argues that norms of community and integration will need to replace many of the competitive, individualistic, and bureaucratic norms embedded in current practice. (Author/PAM)

When properly understood, scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) support the hypothesis that the performance of American students as measured by the SAT is steadily improving. As the overall pool of SAT takers increases and as pressures to adopt SAT scores as an administrative measure of instructional performance mount, SAT averages at the…

Critiques views of the one-room country school experience in the Midwest states. Describes advances an alternative interpretation grounded in the social, political, and economic circumstances that impinged on local institutions, arguing that these schools may not have been the "laboratories of democracy" that conventional wisdom calls…