Describes the benefits of community service to students and to participating social agencies. Considers how one teacher instituted service into a composition course. Discusses topics covered in the course, including equal opportunity and discrimination in education against the poor. (HB)

Focusing on Hawaii over the past 150 years, examines who controlled the educational policy process and what values were pursued in resultant school policies. Political culture has continued to reflect limited citizen involvement while fostering the pursuit of efficiency. Understanding how a state's political culture has developed temporally may be…

Growing up in a highly eroticized environment, children are preoccupied with sex in developmentally distorted ways and increasingly likely to act out their sexual impulses. Abstinence is the only totally effective way to avoid pregnancy, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Chastity education promises great success through promotion of…

Interviews Willie Simmons, Mississippi State Senator and former Head Start parent. Simmons discusses his involvement with Head Start and the benefits of that association; encourages parents to become involved in their schools, communities, and local governments to bring about change; and discusses his entry into politics and the goals for his term…

The traditional home-school partnership was a communitywide, adult conspiracy to raise good, responsible children. Because of massive social and economic changes, parents and school personnel no longer necessarily share neighborhoods, economic status, language, culture, or child-rearing viewpoints. A new, mutually respectful, and enjoyable "dance"…

Reports the results of 23 referenda on funding public library capital campaigns. The location of each referendum, the pass/fail rate by season, and data summarizing referenda over the past six years are provided. Two sidebars cover the failed referendum in Westerville (Ohio) and the successful referendum in Saratoga Springs (New York). (KRN)

Describes a week-long, cross-curriculum project focused on the decade of the 1940s that was conducted at the Vandalia (Illinois) junior high school. Project goals, activities appropriate to each of the disciplines, lists of 1940s personalities, trends and events used to design lessons, and involvement of the wider community are covered. (eight…

Describes a personal experience in the effort to avoid widespread herbicide spraying. Provides insights for building a successful campaign: involvement, finding support, acceptance of differences of opinion, autonomy from political factions, and not assuming people are closed to healthier alternatives. (MCO)

Discusses collaboration between the Research and Development Center and the Institute for Responsive Education and its national reform project called the League of Schools Reaching Out. League seeks to show how school-family-community partnerships can contribute significantly to school restructuring or reform aimed at increasing all children's…

In April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a 32-page report ("A Nation at Risk") calling for drastic educational reforms. A decade later, four top education reformers--John Goodlad, Henry Levin, Phillip Schlechty, and Ted Sizer--assess this document and its legacy. Most see substantial progress despite the…

Various disparate activities have been defined as outreach, which is an element of social service/disease prevention programs. The history of outreach as a project element within federal social programs, central sources of variations in this element, measures of effectiveness and cost effectiveness, and recurring implementation issues are…

Explores the community involvement process through a telephone survey of 400 adult Iowans. Indicates that keeping up with local news and getting together with other people are necessary to the process. Concludes that some people become involved because of their specific ideas for change, whereas others hope good ideas will result from involvement.…

Argues that the failure of programs for developmentally impaired children lies in the type of programs developed, their mode of delivery, and the organization of the care delivery system itself. Suggests that direct community and family involvement would be more effective than additional funding or expansion of current programs. (FMW)

Describes a Pennsylvania elementary school's efforts to enhance school-community partnerships and thereby garner support for innovative programs such as whole language, cooperative learning, process writing, and authentic assessment. The keys to success were improved home-school communication and parent involvement. Parents were encouraged to…

Superintendents across the country are feeling more isolated and vulnerable than ever before. To overcome feelings of isolation, some throw themselves into community activities; others join professional organizations or network with colleagues in neighboring districts. Lonely superintendents should also reach out to people, take care of…