This ethnographic study examines the process of cultural colonialism and the effects of cultural colonialist institutions in West Virginia on the mountain culture arts and artists. Interviews, observations, written material, and video recordings were used to substantiate interviews with artists and institutional administrators. Interpretation of…

This guide presents a framework that identifies what a home, school, and community partnership can do to help families thrive as they experience change and their young children grow. The guide explains how connections among home, school, and community enable families to move from setting to setting with ease and build on their previous experience.…

This collection of 18 essays and interviews documents the unique approach to early childhood education taken by schools in the Reggio Emilia region of Northern Italy for the last 30 years. The book is divided into four major parts. Part I includes an introduction by Carolyn Edwards and others, and the essay, "What Can We Learn From Reggio…

This handbook was developed to facilitate the task school districts face in developing and implementing effective Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) curriculum and policy. Organized into five sections, the guide begins with an introduction that includes the New Hampshire State Board of Education HIV/AIDS…

Smart Start is North Carolina's partnership between state government and local leaders, service providers, and families to better serve children under age 6 and their families. The aim of the program is ensuring that all children enter school healthy and ready to learn. This study examined parent and business involvement in local Smart Start…

Community-based prevention-oriented approaches that provide basic supports to families are needed to address rising rates of violence, child abuse, and other socially disruptive behavior. Weak families, weak neighborhoods, and weak economies are mutually reinforcing and lead to negative behaviors by youth and others. In proposing a community…

This policy paper of the Regents of the University of the State of New York describes the need for partnerships between parents and schools, principles underlying such partnerships, and obstacles to establishing such partnerships. In addition to covering these topics, the first part of the paper discusses family, community, and school…

Educational quality is being harmed by the deterioration of order in public schools, but public concern and appropriate leadership can improve the situation. Because learning depends on good discipline, all contributors to and beneficiaries of education--students, teachers, and taxpayers--suffer when discipline is lacking: students and teachers as…

At the seminar reported in this paper, concepts related to three types of "mediators" whose impact on the development of the child was seen as crucial were examined in the keynote address, in three short papers, and in the discussions of the seminar's three working groups. This report, which was adopted unanimously at the seminar's…

Monumental social and economic problems confront the rural communities of the South. Diversification of the rural economy is the key to revitalizing the rural South, but new industries, anticipating the need for a more highly skilled work force, find the region's human capital resources to be deficient. Vibrant economies are not sustainable in a…

The United States has the highest rate of youthful drug abuse of any industrialized country in the world. There is a growing awareness that drug and alcohol use are closely connected to other problems such as teenage suicide, adolescent pregnancy, traffic fatalities, juvenile delinquency, poor school performance, runaways, and dropouts. Youthful…

Previous literature investigating community protests of school closings may be divided into four perspectives emphasizing (1) lack of comprehensive planning, (2) lack of participative decision-making, (3) loss of community maintenance (or sense of community), and (4) contextual factors, such as district size and type. The present study examines…

This study investigated the ecological factors that affect structural school reform implementation in Israel. The sample used was the whole student population that appeared in the 1972 census. By raising educational achievement levels, restructuring the learning sequence, and rezoning ethnically and economically segregated areas to promote…

Noting that being illiterate in this country precludes full participation in society, this paper addresses the issue of whether or not American society is truly literate. The first section of the paper offers a historical review of commentary on literacy and education to show that there has never truly been "a golden age of literacy," but rather…

The Innovations Program, established by the Australian Schools Commission in 1974, was a small national program aimed at fostering local actions for change in Australian primary and secondary education. In this report, the author begins by examining different approaches to educational innovation and reviewing the literature on innovation. Part 2…