Addresses the importance of links between school and academic libraries through articulation programs; explains how articulation can be initiated through precollege outreach programs; discusses advantages for academic libraries, including improved university-community relationships and outreach to diverse students; and describes the outreach…

Experiences of parent-teacher action research teams established by eight schools that are members of the League of Schools Reaching Out illustrate that, given patience, hard work, supportive leadership, and informed facilitation, the two streams of parent and teacher empowerment can come together for academic achievement. (SLD)

A study of community colleges found that they achieve high levels of participation from underrepresented groups and provide return-to-learning opportunities. However, many developmental studies students drop out. Retention improves when curriculum includes student experience and the educational culture appears to value students. (SK)

Discusses the Christian "option for the poor," which challenges individuals to offer both direct service to those suffering from economic poverty and indirect service aimed at the transformation of attitudes and structures that perpetuate poverty. Emphasizes Catholic education's role in realizing these goals. (YKH)

Explores dynamics of parental involvement in one low-income, urban school struggling to improve student learning and to draw parents into all aspects of their children's education. Embracing a "family metaphor" helped participants overcome implementation barriers (overwhelming teacher expertise, culturally-based role expectations, and…

Examines the progress that Oklahoma State University has made in its community engagement and outreach efforts in the last few decades, and discusses faculty issues that must be addressed to sustain and nourish such efforts and to illustrate the value of an integrated relationship between instruction, research, and outreach. (MSE)

Explains the benefits of pediatric literacy programs. Discusses forming partnerships, training volunteers, role of the children's librarian in building coalitions with community organizations, fundraising and free publicity, and working with doctors' busy schedules. Includes addresses and phone numbers for the "Born to Read" and "Reach Out and…

Discusses the future outlook for reference librarians, with topics including: "Technology as the Source of Change"; "Impact of the Internet"; "Defining the Virtual Library"; "Rethinking Reference"; "Out of the Library and into the Streets"; "Asking Users About Their Needs"; "Standardization and Artificial Intelligence"; "The Financial Future"; and…

This paper seeks to dispel misconceptions about home-schooled children--that they are brainwashed, poorly socialized, or receive poor education. Public libraries can serve the needs of this user group by increasing staff awareness of both the Christian and the "unschooling" philosophical camps, keeping communication lines open about…

Advocacy in illness and aging is a formidable challenge. Provides an uncommon but reasonable framework for freeing clinicians, educators, and helping professionals from their own ideas which periodically are rendered problematic in providing successful intervention. Several illustrations of these practical problems are presented. Some postures for…

Profiles a case study of a Puerto Rican community in New England to determine how natural support systems and human service organizations within the community influence substance abuse program development. Provides recommendations for community-based substance abuse programs. (SNR)

Discusses how meaningful family involvement can enhance the efforts of early childhood teachers. Presents suggestions for creating inviting attitudes and environments. Identifies how schools and families benefit from family involvement. Describes ways to fund and staff family learning centers in schools. Asserts that parent outreach is the key to…

Describes Learning Support Services at the University of Houston, which developed and conducted a training program on academic success counseling. Practicum trainees counseled students, about one-half of whom were at-risk students (under 2.0 GPA), in a learning center effort to improve retention and graduation rates at the university. The…

Peer education is a critical approach to HIV prevention. The current study evaluated 156 peer outreach educators 6 months after their 10-session training. Specifically, we examined factors associated with talking to network members about HIV-related topics as well as distributing risk reduction materials. Overall, current drug users were less…

A zoo outreach program led to placing animals in classrooms where those animals became foci for numerous learning activities such as writing, observing, and care. Systematic debriefings suggested uniqueness to learning outcomes connected to zoo animals. Subsequent analysis of student writing indicated that students responded to situational…