The guide is designed to help states and localities create or strengthen their own youth councils. It is a synthesis of theory and practice that provides a general framework for thinking about youth councils, explaining the principles for youth action and the importance of youth engagement. It also incorporates advice and lessons from people in…

California's vast Central Valley has been called "the Appalachia of California" and "the Other California." Long neglected as either irrelevant or hopeless, the Central Valley has become the focus of government and private philanthropists who understand the growing importance of this region to the state and the nation. The…

The Virginia Tidewater Consortium's effort to reach out to the community began twenty-seven years ago when it received an Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The EOC was specifically designed to work with adults from low socioeconomic backgrounds, most of them minorities. In southeastern Virginia,…

This article reports on an obstacle to achievement that seems particularly pronounced among Native American students high mobility. The turnover rate for one school, North Middle School in Rapid City, South Dakota, was 50 percent overall last year--meaning that half the school's 468 students came or went after the start of the school year. Many of…

2Futuro is a new "Spanish-first" college-financing program rolled out by Sallie Mae and USA Funds. The pilot version of 2Futuro launched last summer and is, say its partnering agents, "the only fully bilingual college-financing and outreach program that enables Hispanic parents and students to apply for college loans in Spanish. By the end of the…

This report represents the deliberations of the Pacific Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 to assess the educational needs of the region. The committee's report outlines educational needs across the state, districts, and territories of Hawai'i, the Commonwealth of…

Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB), the evidence that it is working has continued to grow. Because of this law, teachers and parents are getting the information and help they need to help every child reach his or her best in school--and as a result, student achievement is rising across America. While…

E-mail is seen as an inexpensive, fast way to communicate with university constituencies, especially alumni. The next logical stage for the use of this Internet technology is the development and evaluation of permission based e-mail (PBE) campaigns. In this paper, we directly examine recipient evaluation of PBE in the context of a university…

Adults learning English as a Second Language (ESL) come from different cultures and countries, vary in their education backgrounds, and have diverse reasons for learning English. While reports of overcrowded classrooms and long waiting lists for classes might indicate that intensive outreach and retention efforts are not necessary, many successful…

This practicum was designed so that high school seniors would have the opportunity to apply for and receive scholarships to further their education. A strategic plan was organized to increase the awareness of the available scholarships, grants, and financial aid of high school seniors. Activities included: soliciting business donations; publishing…

This annual report, consisting of 16 district summaries, demonstrates how federal Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) funds have supported a wide range of 1994 projects to improve services in Michigan libraries. Most often these projects involved getting connected to the Internet, making the library accessible to the handicapped,…

This report provides an overview of neighborhood-based family-support programs and describes the development of the family-support movement. It includes sections on the definition of neighborhood-based family-support programs, the principles and theories on which they are based, a discussion of the problems they are designed to address, a…

In this study, a peer-operated university-based anonymous hotline is a data source for the assessment of student concerns and needs, providing empirical information for prevention-oriented psycho-educational campus programming. This paper covers the collection and assessment of data from the anonymous hotline service of the Middle Earth Peer…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a 3-year project in Mississippi to encourage the use of best practices in early intervention with children having disabilities and to increase community-based service options through use of a flexible inservice training and support model. The outreach training model focused on…

This study examined faculty service at colleges and universities in New England to determine the characteristics of service enclaves on campus. Interviews were conducted with faculty and administrators at Bentley College, Lesley College, Salem State College, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston in Massachusetts; Trinity College and the…