Community gardening provides many benefits for students like outdoor physical activity, an understanding of plant life cycles, food production and healthy eating (Blair, 2009; Whiren, 1995). Gardening also provides hands-on learning opportunities to draw parallels between what is needed for plants to grow and what students need to be healthy. When…

The purpose of this study is to test the effects on children's social, behavioral, and academic outcomes of an intervention, Families and Schools Together (FAST), when implemented in two novel ways: (a) in schools with predominantly Latino children and (b) on an entire grade-level cohort instead of with individual families targeted for the…

When the bell rings at the end of a school day, millions of children are left to their own devices while they wait for their families to return home at the end of the work day. Findings from a study conducted by the Afterschool Alliance, "America After 3PM," show that 15.1 million children are unsupervised when the school day ends. The…

School-community partnerships make a difference in student achievement. Synthesizing 35 years of research to provide insight into "what works in schools," Robert Marzano (2003) concluded that community involvement is a critical factor. Though community involvement takes many forms, generally organizations such as libraries, museums, parks, zoos,…

Local records are the foundation on which social history is constructed. However, in an era when most historians categorize themselves as social historians, it is amazing to note how much these primary resources appear to be underutilized in scholarly works. This article attempts to understand why this is so by investigating how it is that…

Purpose: This paper seeks to explore the theoretical bases for teacher-delivered and peer-delivered sexual health promotion and education. Design/methodology/approach: The first section briefly outlines the main theories informing sexual health interventions for young people, and the second discusses their implications for modes of delivery.…

If stronger skills and more education are key to greater labour force participation, then it is important to identify critical barriers to education and training for Canadians with disabilities. In 2008, the Canadian Council on Learning's Adult Learning Knowledge Centre funded a "Community Outreach Initiative for Learner's with…

Community visioning is based upon principles that maximize group participation in a creative problem-solving process. The process itself is structured to solicit and use the full range of interests and expertise within a given community to develop an implementation plan that specifically addresses the needs of the community and that fosters change…

This paper is concerned with the influence of student loans on the accessibility of disadvantaged groups to higher education. Three key conditions are necessary for success, but are often neglected. These are: that effective eligibility and screening criteria are in place and that pro-active targeting measures are employed to reach out to the most…

Growing private-sector participation in basic education service delivery in many developing countries has led to calls for greater partnership arrangements with the public sector to improve access for poor and disadvantaged groups. In Ghana there is some interest in forging closer public-private partnerships to improve access for children who have…

Described here is a study on the efficacy of a digital media-rich curriculum based on the idea that children can learn best from "media synergy", that is, when children have opportunities to learn skills by engaging in repeated practice with them in many different formats and media (Neuman, 1995). The study is part of the "Ready to…

Advanced Placement[R] (AP[R]) courses provide high school students an opportunity to be exposed to the rigors of college while they are still in high school. Since school policies play a role in the opportunities for students to pursue these courses, educational leaders must be aware of the ways in which their personal beliefs and school practices…

This report describes 2009-2010 Austin Independent School District parent involvement activities which are coordinated by the district's Parent Support Office, conducted by campus-based parent support specialists, and supported through the activities of special parent support staff.

This paper describes a model for computer programming outreach workshops aimed at second-level students (ages 15-16). Participants engage in a series of programming activities based on the Scratch visual programming language, and a very strong group-based pedagogy is followed. Participants are not required to have any prior programming experience.…

Statistical Research, Inc. (Tucson, Arizona), is an archaeology consulting business that has developed outreach and education programs to increase public awareness of archaeology projects. Programs have included tours of excavation sites, a "Junior Site Stewards" programs for students in grades 4-5, and development of a slide program for…