This article emerged as a case study from a fact-finding mission of a joint programme between the Centre for Commonwealth Education (CCE) in Cambridge University and the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) in University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to embed innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the basic schools of…

Background/Context: Recent trends suggest that middle-class parents may be a growing constituency in urban public schools and districts. Within the burgeoning literature on the middle class in urban public schools, most scholars have focused on parents' goals and orientations and/or the consequences of parental involvement in classroom and school…

This guide for locating local resources to support a literacy program is designed to help program directors or organizers identify partners and stakeholders in their community--those that may not have been thought of as a resource. In the context of this guide, resources refers to any organization, initiative, or individual who supports…

Describes the Carnegie Middle School (CMS), a North Carolina public charter school that uses the community as the classroom. Examines the school's emphasis on parental support and partnerships with neighborhood business and service organizations, as well as its unique features of accessibility, problem solving, teamwork, goal setting, and life…