This document reports on a symposium on pre-school to school transition that was co-sponsored by the SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) and 13 other organizations and that brought together over 100 educators, human service providers, policymakers and business people to share their experiences in working to strengthen the…

Canada's ability to take advantage of the opportunities and mitigate the difficulties presented by today's economic, cultural, and social changes and global competition depends on the education and skill development of its youth. Meeting these challenges requires a common purpose involving students, parents, businesses, educators and others. To…

The purpose of this book is to serve as a tool for individuals helping to make Alaskan communities places where youth can grow up to be strong, capable, and caring. The book is built around the Search Institute's Youth Developmental Assets Framework, which is comprised of the key building blocks in youth development. The book notes 40 assets that…

In 1989, Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools began an experiment with the radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened in Chicago's elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in the reform was the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational…

"Restructuring" is a term whose meaning varies according to which group is using it. National political leaders often use the term in reference to public school choice. At state and district levels, restructuring is often associated with pushing decision making authority to the local level. Leaders in teachers' unions call restructuring…

This research report evaluates a 2-year effort to achieve home-school partnerships and success for all children at two urban schools: P.S. 111 in New York City and the Ellis School in Boston. As conceptualized by the Institute for Responsive Education staff, the process of achieving success for all children required the transformation of school…

The Central Visayas Regional Project (CVRP) 1 aims to use community based participation to address environmental dilemmas, particularly watershed management, which are exacerbated by harmful local production practices. The CVRP employs many characteristics of Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR&E) which provides technical training in…

The current accountability movement in education is examined in terms of its historical antecedents and federal versus state initiatives and requirements. The assumptions underlying the educational accountability movement are then considered, and refinements and extensions to these assumptions are proposed. The accountability movement in American…

Given the fact that adult citizens of non-English speaking background (NESB) in Australia are actual or potential bilinguals, this paper argues that developing or enhancing those bilingual literacy skills is beneficial to both individuals and Australian society as a whole. The viewpoint is based on a research project with NESB women. Barriers to…

Vermont experienced a rapid expansion of federal childhood funding and programs (accompanied by their voluminous and sometimes contradictory regulations), and identified the need to unify the system after recognizing that the complexity of the early childhood education service delivery system was bewildering for parent-consumers. This report…

This booklet contains descriptions of what America's schools are doing on their own and in collaboration with their communities to make things better and safer for urban communities. It does not contain statistics on the extent of urban problems; it simply focuses on what urban adults are trying to do for urban children. Program descriptions are…

This paper describes one effort to establish a collaborative around the issues of at-risk youth. The Annie E. Casey Foundation's New Futures Initiative was an attempt to build formal structures of collaboration among public and private organizations to address at-risk youth. Data were gathered over 5 years from the six cities in which the program…

This planner aims to assist program directors in establishing or enhancing secondary education programs for migrant students. A chart format enables review of essential elements of successful programs and facilitates discussion and planning of each element. The charts identify the task, the person responsible for accomplishing the task, the…

In the past and present, the communities of Mount Desert Island in Maine have faced the issue of school consolidation. In 1948, the four towns of Mount Desert Island each had their own high school and several elementary schools. Despite an extensive survey and community discussion, the vote to consolidate into one high school was defeated in 1949…

Tremont Consolidated Grammar School (Maine) has changed little in the past 50 years. The wisdom of Paulo Freire and other educators shows that student empowerment, critical thinking, and parent involvement are necessary for true education, particularly for oppressed people. An ecological approach to education involves the family, the community,…