Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

Reviews psychological and educational research on prejudice and intergroup relations to produce suggestions and guidelines for improving the combined educational goals of service learning and multicultural education. Recommends starting early, emphasizing critical thinking, connecting activities to appropriate stages of cognitive development, and…

Provides a brief history of character education and categorizes current efforts. Recommends combining civic participation programs with character education in an attempt to provide consistency, depth, and support. Notes that civic participation programs teach a recognized set of values, use interactive teaching strategies, and promote critical…

Maintains that community service-learning, the integration of service with academic skills and content, can positively enhance students' future involvement in the social and political life of their communities. Discusses the historical roots of service in social studies education and analyzes the empirical evidence on student outcomes. (MJP)

Argues that school service programs involving students in volunteer community efforts should be included in democratic citizenship education. Suggests that encouraging cooperation through volunteer service combats corrosive and anti-democratic effects of excessive individualism. Lists six characteristics of effective programs, compiled by…

Reports on the attitudes of 175 Russian adolescents and their teachers toward civic and community service activities. Argues that economic and social crises have created negative attitudes towards community service. Finds that students who are involved in community activities are more optimistic. (CFR)

Compares 20 African-American rites of passage programs for adolescents, and considers the place of such rites for African Americans and their communities in current and future society. The adolescent rite of passage is a supervised developmental and educational process to assist young people in becoming adults. (SLD)

Identifies health risks and other factors that determine the need for health care services among children and adolescents. Recommendations are made to develop reforms through a coordinated care program rather than through competing systems of services. Models for community-based health care monitoring and coordination exist in other industrialized…

Reviews the association between material deprivation and child abuse and considers the implications of this association for preventive strategies. It is concluded that communitywide strategies aimed at supporting all care providers are more likely to succeed than those based on at-risk groups. (SLD)

Evaluation after two years of Project RAISE, a multifaceted program with seven community sponsors in the large Baltimore (Maryland) school district, indicates the effectiveness of using community adults as advocates and mentors in improving student attendance and some report card grades, but not promotion rates or standardized test scores. (SLD)

Uses research on organizations to analyze the impact of coordination on program quality, efficiency, and accountability of programs providing school-linked services for children. Coordination is not a panacea, but it can improve the existing fragmented system by enabling a more holistic response to children's needs. (SLD)

Group discussions on physical, sexual, and emotional child abuse and neglect, which took place at the "Child Protection for the 21st Century Conference," are summarized. The discussions noted practices that should be preserved and those requiring change in law/law enforcement, mental health, medicine/nursing, social work, and prevention and…

The study of 742 older persons (above age 45) with a developmental handicap residing in either community or institutional settings in Alberta, Canada, found those residing in congregate care settings had significantly higher frequencies of health impairments. Persons residing in the community had significantly better independent living skills and…

Describes the second-language and native language maintenance programs of Brunswick North Primary School (Australia), a school that offers its students opportunities to learn Turkish, Italian, Greek, or Arabic. An integrated curriculum ensures that students acquire or maintain a language other than English. (SLD)

Uses the five stages of creativity designed by psychologist Jacob Getzel--first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination, and verification--to describe a mural project in a rural community college. Reports that the project successfully paired students with community members to paint two local murals. (NB)