The authors acclaimed and innovative inner-city programs for children and their families-Peacemakers, Beacon Schools, and Harlem Freedom-offer indelible stories of lives lost and lives turned around. Children, families, and neighbors learn to come together to rebuild and empower their respective communities. (BF)

Compares two surveys of new community college presidents. Finds that most presidents serve in order to "make a difference," and that 56% of survey participants followed an academic pathway to community college presidency, rather than coming from administrative or student services. (NB)

Describes an agreement between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) (Florida) to open a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site on MDCC's campus. States that VITA, staffed by students in MDCC's tax courses, successfully helped non-English-speaking taxpayers, the elderly, and those who could not afford to…

At UCLA, the American Indian Studies Center's structure as an organized research unit allows a platform for many activities not normally within the purview of departments. The Center implements a holistic, Native view of research, policy, community engagement, and education; has a library and publications; and is a gathering place for American…

The Rural Community College Initiative challenges colleges in economically distressed regions to become catalysts for economic and community development and improved access to education. Led by college-community teams, the 24 sites have experimented with strategic approaches that include leadership development, entrepreneurship education, small…

Examines curricular and pedagogical issues relevant to stressed urban high school environments, proposing coping strategies for physical educators. The article summarizes issues affecting such environments, noting their influence on student participation; provides examples of important content and teaching decisions when working with urban…

Describes SAIL (Students Active in Leadership) as a school-based, youth-directed group. States that the program helps teenagers learn leadership skills by developing and implementing community service activities. SAIL finds partners with whom to collaborate among local businesses, government, and health associations, and these partners provide the…

A survey of 100 parents in a California school district bordering Mexico examined relationships between the bilingual program parents chose for their kindergarten and first-grade children and parental demographic factors. Parents placed their children in settings that mirrored home language use. Parents with a higher level of education were more…

A study examined seven rural Alaska communities engaged in educational reform. Findings indicate that educators must work with small communities to design reforms around local culture; parents must participate actively in school life and decisions; district leaders must share leadership to increase local ownership of reforms; and education in…

This paper describes an adult learning project to revitalise the traditional Inuit art of weaving grass baskets. The participants involved in the project, all older women who speak an indigenous first language (Inuktitut) and who have limited experience with formal education, largely on their own initiative, undertook the process of successfully…

This concluding chapter, written by a national leader in higher education, reflects on public scholarship from a perspective beyond Penn State and argues that public scholarship promises to strengthen "that special form of public decision making that we call democracy."

The study evaluated the effectiveness of a community-based court intervention aimed at reducing truancy in a large urban school district. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess attendance outcomes for 567 truants matched on demographics and drawn from three categories of intervention (no court referral, traditional court referral, and…

Northern Kentucky University shapes internal and external accountability efforts around its mission to meet the needs of the region.

This paper provides an account of findings, pertinent to vocational education and training, of the Victorian evaluation of the Commonwealth-funded Full Service Schools Program. This program was designed for students "at risk" of leaving school early and not making a successful transition into further education and training or employment.…

We describe a university-community collaborative effort to tailor and deliver a prevention program for families of preschoolers living in low-income, urban communities. ParentCorps, which builds on efficacious interventions with parents and young children, aims to promote child social competence and prevent conduct problems by strengthening…