Although parents and citizens in each community should be encouraged to participate in the educational policy-making process, it has been shown that public access to school board meetings is thwarted in many subtle ways. To gain information that would help to balance the interests of privacy and public access in every school district, the State…

This annotated bibliography cites 49 studies of effects of parent involvement on children's academic achievement and the performance of schools. The research tends to treat three broad approaches to parent involvement, namely those that attempt to: (1) improve the parent-child relationship in the context of the family; (2) integrate parents into…

This report provides descriptions of strategies for dropout prevention at the secondary level and presents examples of programs that successfully utilize these strategies. The information is based on data from a review of nearly 200 programs at secondary schools across the four-state Western region that includes Arizona, California, Nevada, and…

In our global information society, citizens of most nations, states, and communities have the opportunity to compete for jobs to produce standardized products of about the same quality. It is smart people--not smart machines--that separate one competitor from another. The foundation of a healthy economy for Kansas is people, the human capital,…

In 1987-88, some 150 American Indian students, parents, tribal leaders, and educators participated in seven regional dialogues on the reforms needed in American Indian education. Participants gave a clear message that Indians want direct control over educational institutions serving their children, curriculum reform to make cultural retention an…

This guide is written for teenagers who may be considering becoming active in their communities. It explains ways teens can increase their power and effectiveness in community life and some of the things they will encounter along the way. It begins by emphasizing the importance of community service, illustrating the ways that teens already may be…

Between 1979 and June 1990, the Training Student Organizers (TSO) Program has motivated nearly 7,400 students and their teachers to organize over 260 environmental improvement projects serving their schools and neighborhoods in the New York City area. The projects run the gamut from clean up campaigns, murals, and letter writing efforts to energy…

Issues related to decentralization, with a focus on community involvement, are discussed in this paper. The 20th-century Indonesian experience is analyzed to illustrate the process by which a national administrative reform policy develops, and to identify contributing and inhibiting factors relating to the implementation of decentralization. The…

The basic premise of this handbook is that effective bilingual programs can occur only within a school context that is itself effective. A foreword argues that: (1) bilingual education programs must be better integrated into the mainstream of local school district programs, and (2) limited-English proficient (LEP) students should be assigned to…

A proposed 3-year project in Albany, New York will train 90 senior citizen volunteers to work in rural special education classrooms and with handicapped children and their parents in the children's homes. The project goal is the creation of a network of training systems and personnel to assist schools in improving special education services.…

Rural economic development presents a paradox of growth in population and jobs without corresponding improvement in local economic well-being. Four forces may impede nonmetropolitan development efforts. Growth of multiestablishment corporations makes traditional regional economic development models unrealistic. Rural industrialization is socially,…

Including all Head Start research (both published and unpublished) and using, when possible, the statistical technique of meta-analysis, this final report of the Head Start Evaluation, Synthesis, and Utilization Project presents findings on the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive and socioemotional development, on child health and health…

In its nine chapters, this summary provides a preview of Connecticut's forthcoming "A Guide to Program Development for Kindergarten, Part 1." Chapter 1 reviews historical antecedents, including Froebel's influence, kindergarten in the United States before 1900, European influences in the early 20th century, American influences, the…

This module was developed to help preservice and inservice teachers understand the rationale behind the community education movement, its development in North Carolina, and how to infuse at least one of its components (use of community resources) into classroom instruction. The module consists of three units. The first unit is designed to help…

To identify which needs of the Hart County schools were most important to community members, a study was undertaken using information from a community needs assessment meeting with 28 citizens in Munfordville (Kentucky) in December, 1987. The information used included the top-ranked 25% of individual need statements and all 71 need statements.…