Many professionals in the early childhood field are inspired by community-driven initiatives that hold great promise for transforming outcomes for the youngest children and their families. However, most collective impact efforts are mobilized in large urban areas, where early childhood professionals and civic leaders take the lead. New Mexico has…

When academics, who occupy a traditional position of power and privilege, engage with community members whose thinking, attitudes, and responses have been shaped by ongoing sociohistorical oppression and disadvantage, democratic participation is not easy to attain. Yet, unless community members feel able to participate freely, the valuable local…

To be actively involved in their own writing requires that students make decisions. In order to build a new approach for our Technical/Professional Writing classes, we assessed our individual teaching practices and past experiences, studied current scholarship on teaching writing, and conducted research on technical writing in our local community.…

The Comprehensive School Improvement Program (CSIP), a holistic school improvement plan currently operating in selected New York City schools, is explained in this guide. The handbook is divided into three sections. Section 1 discusses the goals of the CSIP, which are to enable the principal to become a more effective instructional leader of the…

Describes and evaluates the Parents as Educational Partners Program at a rural elementary school in West Virginia. Team action research efforts demonstrated positive program effects on students, parents, and the community, and identified issues in the program development and educational reform processes. The beneficial effects of parent…

Citizen participation in vocational education has two broad objectives: the development of individuals to the limit of their capacity, and the development of the community to improve the quality of life. Argues for a balance among administrators, school boards, and community participants based upon common interests, goals, and resources. (AF)

School communities feel pressure to dramatically improve the educational experience of students and principals are confronted with the need to lead their staff and community in examining current practice and implementing changes that respond to these demands. Leading school change is one of the most complex tasks faced by a school leader. The…

A project was undertaken at Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), in Ohio, to develop guidelines to maximize the utilization of advisory committees in technical programs. Surveys were distributed to 200 advisory committee members under the auspices of Business and Technology at CCC's Western Campus asking them to rate 26 essential characteristics of…

Describes the process of building partnerships between Aboriginal communities and the University of Northern British Columbia at the levels of both institutions and persons, focusing on collaborative development of a First Nations Studies curriculum. Argues that overtly participatory methodologies have enhanced the collaborations' success,…

This handbook discusses the following types of parent involvement in education: (1) decision-making; (2) parents as educators; (3) advocacy; (4) school support; and (5) parent education and support. The benefits of parent involvement are outlined. Examples from New York City's 1987-88 Parent Involvement Program (PIP) demonstrate that parent…

At the beginning of his tenure in 1987, the superintendent of Clear Creek School District (Colorado) found that the district had no written K-12 curriculum, no ongoing process for developing such a curriculum, and no systematic process for staff development. To provide for change based on projected student needs for the 21st century, the…

This report reviews the collaborative and evaluative efforts of an Arkansas education renewal consortium comprised of two universities and nine school districts. The reform originated from a smaller project that aimed to establish a broad communication base and systematic planning for meeting student needs. The current project, begun in 1985-86,…

This paper focuses on a community's educational improvement project in Tennessee that resulted from executive appointment of a citizen task force in each community. The paper reports project development and results; discussion emphasizes implications for school administrators. A joint task force, appointed in 1985, was directed to develop…