It is now widely recognized that small schools are more productive and effective than larger schools. Yet, public officials and professional educators in many rural areas continue to believe that small schools are inefficient and ineffective, a way of thinking reflected in closed schools, angry residents, and long bus rides for students. About a…

Organization and information resources are presented to help community and school district leaders sustain and improve small high schools. Contact information and brief descriptions are provided for 11 organizations that either have a significant direct influence on educational policymaking or assemble knowledge and information helpful to efforts…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how publishing students' writing in the community affects their attitudes toward writing. Participants were 19 sixth-grade language arts students from an urban upper elementary school. Results from student attitude surveys indicate that using publishing is an effective method of connecting students to…

This report addresses the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) from the American Association of Community Colleges, which seeks to enhance the capacity of targeted community colleges to expand access to postsecondary education and help foster regional economic development. The Ford Foundation has made a decade-long commitment to community…

This paper describes the Helping Our Teachers (HOT) Program, a community volunteer program started in the fall of 2000 at Julia P. Bryant Elementary School in Statesboro, Georgia. The purpose of the program is to formally organize all parent volunteers to help teachers and staff with school-related activities previously shouldered by…

While research shows that trained social workers were better prepared to produce more effective outcomes in child welfare than those with other degrees, only an estimated 3 to 28 percent of the public child welfare workforce comprised trained social workers. A social work effort to promote workforce development and to promote professional social…

A strong rural arts project should be collaborative. Collaborative projects accommodate diverse needs and agendas, develop non-school project advocates, are sustained by and rely on several sources, and strengthen communities. Because local artists are accessible, have a special commitment to improving education in their communities, and…

This report captures the essence of four schools in four different communities participating in a study on young immigrant children in U.S. schools. The schools were selected from a national network of schools implementing the Schools of the 21st Century (21C) program, which provides a range of services such as child care, health care, home…

This presentation by North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt discusses the need to get students engaged in their communities via service learning. Service learning reverses student disengagement by giving them responsibility for their own learning. This provides real-life contexts for learning, prepares students for citizenship through involvement…

This report documents findings from site visits and other data collected by the Schools of the 21st Century (S21C)-Detroit Annenberg Challenge External Evaluation Team during the 2000-01 school year regarding Detroit's Leadership Schools efforts. The S21C approach emphasized improving student-teacher relationships, enhancing school-community…

Wesley College, a private urban secondary school, sought a rural location where ninth-grade students could spend a term in a community-based, experientially-derived curriculum to enhance their sense of self and community. The small town of Clunes, in Victoria (Australia), accepted Wesley's initiative and since 2000, Wesley has operated a campus…

To deliver training and continuing education for education personnel in a large rural state, Montana has decentralized its Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) by forming five regional councils. The Montana Center on Disabilities developed a statewide training program for using paraeducators as liaisons to communities to enhance…

This issue paper proposes service-learning as a practice educators can use to stem violence by creating situations in which young people experience structure, receive emotional support, have clear behavior expectations, and experience meaningful consequences to unacceptable behavior. Suggests that involvement with service-learning enhances young…

This survey of institutions of higher education around the world brings together information about their interest and involvement in programs that combine academic study and volunteer service. Following an international conference in May 1998, called to consider the growing service-learning movement, questionnaires were sent to higher education…

This document contains three issues, each containing one article, from the American Association of Community Colleges' Service Learning Resource Guide. The first article, "Service Learning and Curricular Integration" (Robert Exley), discusses service learning and curricular integration. It outlines several steps in implementing service learning…