Business-Higher Education Forum's study of the Seamless Education Partnership began with a theory of action for cross-sector efforts to increase alignment from Pre-K through graduate school (P-20) and improve educational outcomes. BHEF's theory of action posits that community leaders coalesce around a shared vision that is shaped by local context…

This report describes efforts to provide seamless transitions from early to elementary education. Specifically, it details SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids), a five-year initiative funded by the Kellogg Foundation, which has contributed a unique, community-based perspective to the national conversation on what it takes to…

"Catalyst" is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. This issue contains the following articles: (1) The National Study of Student Hazing Initial Findings; (2) The Social Norms Marketing Research Project--An Update; (3) Message From William…

A college-based program that combines training, direct support, and technical assistance was found to produce significant gains in bonding and bridging social capital and key political attributes among low-income, minority, and immigrant groups organizing to enhance their power to influence public school politics and policies in New York City.…

This article reflects on the school's role in the building of citizenship, especially in socially vulnerable contexts. We argue, and try to show, that effective participation in decision-making processes is a key tool to promote conditions that help in social transformation and the formation of active citizenship. We offer a brief description of…

Interest and participation in science in schools has been declining for many years and there is a genuine need to rejuvenate interest in science at the high school level. One possible solution is the completion of challenging science projects which fulfill an authentic purpose in the community. This paper discusses the results of ongoing research…

Democratic partnerships of universities, schools, and an array of neighborhood and community organizations are the most promising means of improving the lives of our nation's young people. Over the past two decades, many colleges and universities have been experiencing a renaissance in engagement activities. Universities, once ivory towers, have…

This essay considers the intellectual engagement of rural people in the context of their schooling. It argues that rural schooling shares the miseducative purposes common to American schooling in general (i.e., purposes associated with sustaining American global economic dominion). It frames rurally appropriate education as an on-the-ground…

Two social studies methods instructors created an assignment that places teacher candidates in leadership roles in partnerships with community organizations to plan and implement projects to increase student learning. This article outlines the project requirements, past project results, and student reflections on the collaborative effort. It…

The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This issue contains the following articles: (1) The Credit Crisis Goes to College: Upheaval in the Student-Loan Business Leaves Students and Parents Scrambling (Susan C. Thomson); (2) The Engaged University: Northern…

This report examines the program improvement strategies, step-by-step, that allowed The James Irvine Foundation's Communities Organizing to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative to achieve the levels of quality needed to boost the academic success of participating students, and makes policy and funding suggestions for improving program performance.…

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,…

Towson University was honored to host the 13th Annual Conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in October 2007. More than three hundred faculty, staff, and senior level administrators representing approximately eighty institutions, national and international, came together for three days to…

The author's charge in this article is to focus particularly on the question of how an academic community can sustain itself and work productively and positively to achieve normally high aspirations for its students and all members of the community. Writing from the perspective of a longtime member of the Virginia Tech community, he begins with a…

Family and community members often look at children's writing from a deficit point of view--seeing only what's "wrong" with it, what needs "fixing." Teachers can take a proactive role as family and community member educators, communicating to them how writing develops in young children and how they can play a positive role in this development.…