This qualitative research examines the question: In what ways do school districts (called boards in Canada), universities, and community organizations collaborate to develop an innovative STEM program focused on the United Nations' sustainable development goals? Students, parents, teachers, high school staff, school district administrators,…

This study assesses the impact of five years of community level activities in the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan (PYFMP) on four school-related risk and protective factors including academic failure, low school commitment, school opportunities for prosocial involvement, and school rewards for prosocial involvement. The intervention and…

Education studies have repeatedly emphasized the crucial contribution of family-school-community partnership to children's academic and educational success, as well as to improving organizations and systems. Such partnership becomes even more complex when the child presents needs in several areas of development. In this context, it is essential…

Based on 135 ethnic afterschool programs and language schools, this descriptive study (Part 2 of 2 in this issue) revealed differences in the types of programs housed within East, South, and Southeast Asian coethnic communities (strong, weak, or dispersed) in the U.S. The article applies a combined cultural-structural framework to understand…

This article explores an action-oriented research study designed to provide better understanding of ways to leverage school and community partnership through family engagement, focusing on the development and enactment of an approach to nurture family-school partnerships. Specifically, in partnership with seven school districts, a team of…

Though a variety of studies have considered the impact of mentoring on beginning teachers, there is little research that explores effective ways to support their work. This qualitative study addresses that gap in the literature by describing how one mentoring program sought to develop mentors' understanding of their local context by sharing…

Reflecting decades of research documenting the essential role families play in the education of children, the standards published both by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC) include a focus on the importance of the relationship with the…

In this article we expand the scope of school-university partnerships to include a community partner. This study involved an afterschool tutoring program known as the Discovery Center (pseudonym) partnering with a university reading class. This partnership, which is in its sixth year of implementation, prepares teacher candidates in the area of…

There is growing recognition that the traditional research paradigm fails to address the needs of school practitioners. As such, more collaborative and participatory approaches are being encouraged. Yet few articles examine the structures, processes, and dynamics of research-practice partnerships. To address this gap, this essay analyzes a…

This report presents the SPARK literacy model, an innovative approach developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, for addressing the literacy needs of low-income and minority schools in Milwaukee. It also presents the results of a two-year randomized control trial evaluation of the SPARK literacy program's impact on reading…

Although the Common Core State Standards call on parents to support professional educators' efforts for improving student academic achievement, we have yet to examine how to best support parents in achieving this goal. The present study addresses this need by examining a five-month mathematics intervention which aimed to increase awareness of the…

This article synthesized current research on effective communities for English Language Learners (ELLs). The findings are discussed under the following categories: parents, community resources, and peers. The results of the review indicate that parenting programs are effective, but they must be carefully developed and often require specific…

In general, youth whose parents are involved in their schooling experience better academic outcomes. Yet some parents, especially those with few resources in low-income urban communities, face barriers to becoming engaged in school and community. This report from the field describes the "Neighboring Project Parent Empowerment and Volunteer…

In this article, we report on a study in which we interviewed working class families who were the first cohort in a family literacy program that had been locally developed and implemented in a small village in Canada more than two decades previously in response to community-identified needs. The study was framed by Tulving's concept of episodic…

In an effort to increase students' success, schools and communities have begun to develop school-based mentoring programs (SBMP) to foster positive outcomes for children and adolescents. However, experts have called for more research into the effectiveness of these efforts for students across grade levels. Therefore, this study was designed to…