Describes a community asset assessment used as a mechanism for reaching and engaging an undervalued community. Latino adolescents were placed in leadership roles as assessment interviewers in a Puerto Rican community. Discusses challenges and implications for involvement of Latino youths in school and human-services agency asset research. (LSR)

When schools consult with students about their educational experiences, students exhibit increased self-confidence, independence in learning, and commitment to school. Teachers become aware of students' creativity, insightfulness, and responsibility. At the school level, student consultation can change assumptions about student capabilities and…

In a field practicum based in a low-income community, social work students' sense of empowerment depended on the kind of feedback they received from others. The critical source of feedback was the field instructor. A field setting with limited structural supports is liberating to most students but overwhelming for some. (Author/MSE)

Some important theoretical work done in the field of education/schooling has come close to losing touch with the hard facts of lived experience. Educational theorists must resist making untenable motivational claims for the power of teachers and students which ignore the massively greater power of capital and its allies. (IAH)

Develops a critique of the "special diglossia" idea: the notion that Navajos speak Navajo but read and write English. Describes uses for English and Navajo literacy in one community on the Navajo reservation. Applies concepts such as institution, ideology, power, and empowerment to these uses. (JS)

Dynamation is the integrative process whereby the sum total of all learning, knowledge, experiences, and feelings are brought to bear on productive, creative action and problem solving. The article discusses 10 techniques developers can use to encourage faculty to engage in growth activities. Focus is on facilitator-enhanced empowerment.…

Examines the interface between the family and the school. Argues that school counselors have access to both family and school systems and thus are uniquely positioned to engage each component. Discusses triangulation and cautions counselors to maintain an outside position and not become triangled into the family system. (RJM)

If school choice options take place in school systems across the country, challenging opportunities may exist for the teaching profession. Analyzes the development of school choice plans by teachers and examines the impact of this process on the professionalization of teachers. Describes gains in teacher involvement, decision making, and autonomy.…

Discusses Louis E. Raths' educational theories and their implications for classroom teaching. Maintains that theories of children's empowerment have existed in Rath's work for 50 years. (BB)

Reports the results of five years of analysis examining the impact of the service of the Youth Support Project, a systems-based approach to improving the functioning of youths entering the juvenile justice system and their families (N=95). Results indicate that relationships exist between the various blocks of predictor variables and the different…

Suggests quality indicators for special-education practices that result in socially valid outcomes such as high self-esteem, self-determination, individual empowerment, and joy. Discusses social validity, criteria for determining socially valid outcomes, and practices that promote these outcomes. (Author/DB)

IndTech, "Independence through Technology," is a program in the New York City Public Schools (District 75) in which special-needs students mass produce adaptive devices for special-needs students of that district. Discussion includes research and development, the production sites, and empowerment of all participants. (AEF)

A young woman educated in North America who came to Chile to teach experiential environmental education realized that she would have to reconcile her educational ideals with the reality of Chilean culture, which does not support questioning, critical thinking, gender equality, democratic participation, or self-directed learning--the underpinnings…

Reviews a book that analyzes the 1970s political takeover of the Crystal City (Texas) school board, city council, and county offices by radical Chicano activists; district-wide establishment of maintenance bilingual education; internal and community divisions that followed; and eventual abandonment of the innovative programs. Points out the links…

This article describes development and psychometric properties of the Community Living Attitudes Scale, Mental Retardation, a 40-item measure based on the input of self-advocates and focused on contemporary community living philosophies. Tested with 742 individuals, the measure's factor structure was confirmed, and subscales of Empowerment,…