Born in the aftermath of social upheaval in 1970, Servol (Service Volunteered for All) is a grassroots community development organization working with preschoolers and adolescents in the Caribbean nations of Trinidad and Tobago. This booklet describes the efforts and successes of this program, founded through the intervention of a Catholic priest…

This document provides an overview of a survey of child care planning advisory groups in 14 cities that was conducted in December, 1991 and January, 1992. The survey sought to identify major issues related to community-based planning for child care services in Ontario, Canada. After discussing the background and history of child care planning,…

A community-based approach can excel at putting people back to work. The community-based strategy for helping people find and keep jobs needs to provide comprehensive and integrated services. Collaboration is likely to be the most practical means to round up those services. Community groups usually have a dual purpose in pursuing a jobs program:…

Intended to educate school, business, and government leaders as well as the general public, this book provides a comprehensive overview of and practical guide to the family literacy movement. The book begins by tracing the history of family literacy as an idea, as individual programs, and as a public policy movement. Then it provides guidelines to…

The central thesis of this book is that the developmental conception of democracy provides the theoretical foundation for an alternative model of school governance devoted not to efficient integration of students into a hierarchical labor force, but to development as unique human beings. This will necessitate an organizational structure that…

The Annenberg Rural Challenge seeks to create an effective and sustainable rural school movement that actively involves families, communities, and educators in supporting good rural schools in reciprocal relationships with their communities and local environments. Twenty-six projects, involving hundreds of schools and communities, have been…

This report, fifth of eight in a series, highlights the views of California parents and other adults about issues affecting the health of adolescents, the role communities play in helping young people grow up well, and policies to address behaviors that undermine their health. Six in 10 parents surveyed by the California Center for Health…

In response to a legislative request, this seminar convened to make a comprehensive study of ways to improve the governance effectiveness of the state's county boards of education and county school board members. Participants were county school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, service personnel, parents, community leaders, and…

Effective strategies for developing early childhood centers in public schools are discussed in this paper, which draws from a research-based literature search and intensive case studies of six Northwest sites. The sites represent a range of rural, suburban, and urban programs; large and small schools; and a variety of program features. The sites…

This report presents the results of an achievement and enrollment study of the law and public service magnet program at the Northeast Law and Public Service Magnet High School (Kansas City, Missouri). Achievement test scores for students in the program were at or slightly above those of the district as a whole for the 1990-1991 year. It also was…

This ERIC Digest reports on the educational aspirations of rural youth compared with students living in urban and suburban areas. Research indicates that in comparison to urban youth, rural young people felt their parents were much more supportive of their taking full-time jobs, attending trade schools, or entering the military rather than…

Despite attention to cultural considerations in teacher education, curriculum development, and educational policy making and analysis, evaluation remains the last bastion of ethnocentrism in educational evaluation. Evaluators should accept the challenge of finding new ways to explore educational successes within various cultural contexts. More…

This book provides a conceptual and practical framework for understanding lifelong education in the context of the multifaceted rural community. The goal of the discussion is to develop educational programs involving new combinations of services and new organizational arrangements so that individuals will become resourceful, autonomous, and…

This publication reflects the philosophy and support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation for early childhood care and development. It highlights different approaches to early childhood care and development and explains why the foundation believes that investing in early childhood is one of the best ways of building a brighter, better future. The…

According to pioneers in the effective-schools movement, every school can improve educational quality for all its students, including poor and minority children, by incorporating a set of essential, research-identified characteristics present in successful schools. This publication discusses basic elements of the ongoing effective-schools movement…