An interim president has to perform a particularly difficult balancing act. He or she shoulders the burdens from--or legacy of--the previous president and must also provide a foundation of stability for the new president. Throughout the process, effective communication--both internally and externally--is critical to ensuring a smooth transition.…

No Child Left Behind, Section 1118, Title I is devoted solely to parental involvement. Section 1118 requires school districts receiving Title I funds to develop and implement a written plan for parent involvement. Parental involvement is examined through teachers' responses concerning their engagement of parents in student achievement. Results…

This article investigates the importance of parent and community engagement in curriculum development, along with curriculum leadership, engaging stakeholders, and the importance of curriculum. Parent and community member engagement is examined in light of curriculum committee participation as reported by Missouri superintendents. Survey responses…

Teach for America (TFA) is perceived as a major player in the education wars over the future of public schools, and a key ally of those who disparage teacher unions and schools of education, and who are enamored of entrepreneurial reforms that bolster the privatization of a once-sacred public responsibility. But what exactly is TFA's role in these…

In a world of high tech and low touch, it is easy for public relations programs to stray from tried-and-true interpersonal strategies long associated with solid communication planning. New technologies allow communications professionals to quickly send e-mails and telephone calls to selected groups. Social media sites provide users immediate…

After a failed tax levy in 2004, the Ladue School District in Missouri realized that it had to significantly change its communication methods. A new superintendent was hired in July 2004 to work with the Board of Education to reestablish relationships and increase effective communications with parents and community members. As such, we are the…

This article provides a community relations professional the rationale and background regarding the use of Universal Instructional Design in classrooms. It also provides community relations specialists with a communication plan for educating the public on Universal Instructional Design via a teaching and modeling approach. Results of a recent…

Defines the principal role and global function of public relations practitioners as perceived by the most senior communications executives in agencies or corporations in central United States. (PD)

An informal statewide coalition of institutions from Missouri, Missourians for Higher Education (MHE), undertook a 2-year, $250,000 public information campaign. MHE focused on four goals: to elevate state support of higher education; to increase gifts from private sources; to develop new markets for Missouri's institutions; and to stimulate…

The integration role of community development agents and the social system in which they work was examined. Their personal capability to act as an integrating agent was inferred from the nature of the specialized training prescribed in the community development master degree program and their prior occupational experience. Operational…

The purposes of the project reported in this study were to prepare a brochure showing that the quality of education was still as high as it had been before change in the community had led parents and other citizens to worry whether children were receiving a good education in local schools, and to distribute the brochure on a mass basis and…

This guide is Missouri's primary resource for planning, implementing, and evaluating Industrial Technology/Technology Education (ITE/TE). It contains 10 chapters: (1) a direction for ITE/TE; (2) planning the ITE/TE program; (3) planning ITE/TE facilities; (4) implementing a safety program; (5) creating ITE/TE's image (public relations); (6)…

This guide was designed to help educators expand the delivery of vocational education programs, services, and activities to single parents, homemakers, displaced homemakers, and young women. The guide promotes the development of a comprehensive program of vocational education services that is based on a model with six components: outreach;…

By means of a case study of the Saint Louis, Missouri school desegregation and reorganization program, administrative procedures for avoiding desegregation or creating an appearance of compliance are discussed. The strategies used include public relations, inbreeding of staff, coopting and/or dividing citizen action, and stalling for time. (MH)

This model program guide was developed to help cooperative industrial education (CIE) teacher coordinators (especially in Missouri) to develop a program of CIE. Topics covered in the 10 sections of the manual are as follows: (1) introduction to the CIE program; (2) role of the CIE teacher-coordinator; (3) instructional classification of the CIE…