The concept of community is receiving much press but little theoretical classification. Sociological theory can provide a deeper theoretical understanding of the concept of community and the role of schools in community, by addressing the underlying factors that alienate schools from communities. This paper uses the classic…

Educators in Missouri must take offensive action promoting public education to counteract the negative press received nationwide in recent years. Communities should organize committees to address the needs of its students and address these needs with specific goals. Regional and state goals should also be made, keeping local goals in mind. St.…

The New Zealand education structures were reorganized on a national scale in the late 1980s. In 18 months, a 100-year-old education system was radically restructured to create new administrative structures, new career paths, and new professional expectations for personnel. This paper summarizes these structural changes, reviews research reports…

The diversity of values about sexuality among administrators, teachers, parents, and children creates serious challenge for public schools. This case study offers an insider's view of what happened in a community when conservative parent groups challenged a senior high health curriculum. In the "Laketown Public Schools," conflict erupted…

An examination of Rosa Parks' relationship with the Highlander Folk School from the first encounter in 1955 through Labor Day of 1956 provides a new understanding of the school's public relations program that sought to end segregation in the Jim Crow South. Myles Horton founded Highlander in 1932 to provide an adult residential center in the South…

The Accelerated Schools program is a popular school restructuring model that targets at-risk students. To serve at-risk students better under the Accelerated Schools program, schools must establish a governance program in which cadres of school practitioners and community members become involved in the decision making. Decisions of these cadres…

This paper describes the development of a partnership project in New Castle County, Delaware, which teams scientists and other technical specialists with elementary teachers to enrich science activities in the teachers' classrooms. Interest in the project has evolved from a small, structured pilot program with 12 volunteers to a wide ranging…

This paper presents data from two in-depth studies to illustrate the importance of community involvement and staff development for improving schools. The first case study describes how community political action in a school district in southwestern Ohio spurred school reform. In "Riverside," a pseudonym, the black community sought to…

Noting that although the benefits of working closely with parents and families are widely recognized, many schools do not enjoy close partnerships with their communities, this document describes the Taking Stock program, which is intended to help develop more extensive, creative, and responsive strategies for collaboration. The goals of the…

The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a comprehensive job training model that will increase the self-determination and integrated community employment of youth and young adults with serious mental illness or emotional disturbance. Project objectives are to (1) promote interagency collaboration and coordination; (2) increase…

This report describes a course held in Spanish at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center in Haifa, Israel. The course considered various themes related to the education, health, and well-being of preschool children. Participants were 30 individuals from Central and South American countries who held decision-making positions in…

Guidelines and ideas for creating successful school/community projects are provided in this handbook. Organized like a cookbook, the book contains 43 chapters by individual contributors who take a community-based approach to education, in which the schools are the pivotal institutions of a community. The first section outlines the roles, or…

Alaska Statute 14.03.120 mandates that each school district file an annual educational planning report that establishes its educational improvement goals and priorities and outlines strategies for achieving and measuring these goals and for ensuring community participation. Although each district has developed its own goals, strategies, and…

This booklet is designed to help people in Maine communities organize on a local level to address one of the main goals of the America 2000 program, that all children will start school ready to learn. The booklet suggests that this goal is more complicated than it first appears and that its meaning can vary, depending upon the perspective from…

Schools are forging linkages with noneducational organizations and agencies to address the needs of all students, particularly those who are most vulnerable to the southwest region's economic and social upheaval. This paper attempts to present an overview of the interrelationship between two elements of the community at large--business and…