In 2019, the Texas legislature passed a historic education finance bill that included an initiative to add up to 30 days to the school-year calendar. One way districts can do this is to offer a voluntary summer learning program. In 2020, the American Institutes for Research, with support from The Wallace Foundation, launched the six-year Texas…

In December 2014, the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren (CFDS) was formed to make sweeping educational reform recommendations regarding the provision and governance of public education in Detroit. Spearheaded by community organizations, labor unions, and business interests representing an array of stakeholders in the Detroit area,…

This paper documents the initial process by which a San Diego middle school, located in a low-income and predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and repeatedly failing to meet No Child Left Behind provisions, restructured into an academically rigorous, detracked charter school. The discussion of the political experience and working relationships…

Research continues to support the many teaching and learning benefits of one-to-one laptop learning. Benefits range from improved student engagement and teacher-student interactions to the attainment of 21st century skills and the transformation of teacher practice. Additional benefits include improved student writing skills, increased teacher…

This handbook was designed to assist advisory councils, program staff and administrators, and community members in planning community education programs and in managing those programs effectively. Chapter I defines and describes planning: what it is, why it is used, and how to engage in the process. The critical role of planning leaders is…

Describes the development of a new institutional infrastructure for service coordination in a Chicago university-community-school partnership project. Examines convening and goal-structuring processes, institutional interests and reward systems, relations to external environments, communication linkages, and institutional conventions.…

In this speech, the author suggests that the success of public schools depends heavily on commitment to and large-scale agreement on educational goals. He examines the difficulty in creating rational programs to carry out specific behavioral goals and the more remote ends usually stated for educational systems. The author then discusses the…

This paper introduces the Connecticut Community Conversations project and discusses the origins of the partnership between Public Agenda and the Graustien Memorial Fund in Connecticut. It describes Public Agenda's model of community dialogue and engagement and how it was specifically applied in the project. It then looks closely at the experience…

This digest reviews a variety of the policies, programs, and practices to prevent youth violence so that local leaders can base decisions on the experience of other communities. The effectiveness of school violence prevention initiatives is increased by public policies that reinforce their message and by community programs that attempt to prevent…

Educators are presently engaged in testing the hypothesis that under favorable conditions bilingual schooling will improve the education of both bilinguals and monolingual English-speaking children and at the same time contribute to a healthier society. These prerequisite favorable conditions are: a socio-economic-cultural survey of the community…

This paper sets forth the position of the Nebraska State Department of Education regarding career education in order to provide a basis for the development of additional materials and assistance which will facilitate the establishment of career education programs in Nebraska schools. Career education is viewed as a comprehensive, systematic, and…

The purposes of this guide are to familiarize K-12 administrators with the concept of career education and to provide suggestions for planning and developing a career development program in a local school. It outlines a practical strategy for getting career development adopted and implemented at the local level. Topics covered are as follows: Need…

This digest presents an overview of successful urban anti-truancy strategies, including both supports and penalties for students and their families. It is generally believed that to prevent truancy a sustained, multifaceted, and personalized program for each student must be developed. Community collaboration is essential to these efforts, as the…

The principal aim of community work-education councils is to make the transition between the worlds of education and work more rational through a deliberative, collaborative process of public and private interests and initiatives. A cross section of the community must work together as peers in a flexible give and take spirit. Councils should avoid…

The purpose of this study was to investigate in what ways and to what extent Parent Advisory Committees on Title I Elementary Secondary Education Act (PACT) and school authorities influenced each other in regard to decisions concerning Title I programs. By means of a descriptive analytic case study approach, the interactions of the PACTs and…