Although inclusiveness is the U.S. school system's strongest feature, more is seldom better. This article recommends raising standards and expectations, focusing on outcomes, stressing effort over ability and teacher competence over seniority, individualizing instruction, breaking the age/grade link, expanding year-round learning and early…

Describes how the Civic Achievement Award Program, a new initiative of the Close Up Foundation, combines reading, writing, research, and community service in teaching citizenship to fifth through eighth grade students. (PRA)

Describes the Parent-Teacher Action Research Project, a multisite collaborative action research project involving eight schools that are part of the national reform network, the League of Schools Reaching Out. In project schools, teams of parents, teachers, and, in some cases, principals and students collaborate on family-school-community…

Four elementary schools and two local organizations in Seattle's South End collaborated to improve student performance, strengthen the community, and create a model for school reform. Programs included day care, one-on-one reading workshops, volunteer mentors, community events, adult education, and writing workshops. Presents four tips for…

Describes one Wisconsin school district's use of continuous quality improvement (CQI), coupled with community involvement, to plan and pass a referendum for a new K-8 school. Fourteen CQI principles used to successfully develop and drive a community-wide effort in school planning are highlighted and discussed. (GR)

Describes the most significant educational reform efforts of the past two decades that have been premised primarily either on professionalism or greater community inclusion, illustrating some contemporary reforms that embody both professionalism and community in their strategies for school change, and examining themes needing further attention in…

Discusses how staff development is different in standards-based systems, describing ways to ensure that systems have the capacity for growth and development based on the standards, explaining configuration maps, and presenting six components of building capacity for standards-based reform: covenants; staff and community involvement; curriculum,…

Research has shown that no treatment program designed for street children can succeed unless the community is prepared to respect, protect, and provide opportunities for them. Investigates why the general public, and those charged with enforcing the law, often treat street children with scorn and hostility. (Author/GCP)

Interviews with adult residents and high school students in two rural Kansas communities that had consolidated their high schools found that adults in the community that lost its high school had more negative reactions and feelings of loss than adults in the community that retained its high school. Student reactions were generally positive.…

A teacher recalls how the first years of Foxfire coincided with her first years of teaching Kiowa students in Oklahoma. A curriculum derived from the region, inspired by ideas that became known as the Foxfire core practices, and delivered via small group work and facilitative teaching, generated student interest, innumerable activities,…

This paper argues that the current interest in service learning provides universities with a unique opportunity to engage their students in community service, expand their educational agenda, and build reciprocal partnerships with the community. Specific activities for implementation of such a program are delineated for the four constituencies of…

Two-thirds of Montana's school districts are rural, and most students attend schools with enrollments under 300. Such recent trends as peer tutoring, multigrade classrooms, and project-based learning have always been practiced in these small schools. One small community's successful effort to save its school, classroom practices in one-room…

Describes an urban environmental stewardship project undertaken by students at a Seattle public school in an effort to make their school more beautiful, their environment more healthy, and their learning more tangible. In partnership with neighbors and the community, students transformed a section of the school grounds into a garden refuge.…

This article discusses the outcomes of a project that used a community development framework to implement change in early care and intervention services in two culturally diverse communities. It describes how community forums and parent leadership training assisted in change efforts and lessons learned from implementation and evaluating reforms.…

During a 1998 National Rural Education Association symposium, participants indicated that urban-style standards improve rural schools with adequate resources, cause confusion and concern, and conflict with local decision making. To match education standards with rural communities' values, many questions must be resolved in public political forums.…