"America Goes Back to School" is a nationwide initiative to encourage and support family and community involvement in improving children's learning. This activity kit provides tools to help families and community members develop and become involved in partnerships to improve students' academic success. The kit's "organizer's…

This document summarizes the proceedings of a national forum for persons with an interest in and commitment to research into issues affecting people living in rural and remote areas across Australia. The six sub-themes of the conference were: (1) the role of the community in teacher preparation; (2) the quality of education in rural Australia; (3)…

A democratic model of educational evaluation and some policy recommendations to develop culturally appropriate evaluation are presented. The traditional hard science paradigm in research must be replaced with evaluation designed to feed back to communities of varying cultural backgrounds. The most fundamental assumption of the new model is…

This report reviews economic and social issues facing rural schools and communities in the 1990's, focusing on the mutual dependence and collaboration between communities and schools. Rural America, dependent on resource-based industries, has faced distressed economy and declining populations. With a historical overview of rural America under the…

This newsletter describes the 6-year Supporting Diversity in Schools (SDS) project that seeks to create school environments free of racial prejudice and privilege. It briefly describes the program's working themes: (1) giving a voice to people who have traditionally been silent in the shaping of classroom practices; (2) developing pride in…

This book examines the nature of comprehensive, large scale historical and social changes that contextualize educational reform, and it amplifies the meaning of lessons learned by those who have assisted in change efforts. It also examines how the rhetoric of educational change may fall short of the reality, as translated to processes and…

The purpose of this document is to give lawyers who are planning to work with students some practical advice that will make their presentations more effective. The advice should be helpful as lawyers make school visits for Law Day or even if they visit several times. As the article suggests, the first step is for the attorney to get to know the…

An evaluation review was done of the training activities of the Creating a New Approach to Learning Project (Project CANAL) during the first half of Year 4 of the project. The review covered types of training opportunities that were available, observations on participation by members of the groups for whom the training was designed, some…

This document consists of materials developed and used by a project to research and design a prototype plan using the television program "Reading Rainbow" and the resources of the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association to cultivate family literacy. An executive summary presents findings from the six focus group discussions of…

The Iowa vision of early childhood described in this document was developed in 1990 with input and feedback from many Iowa Department of Education staff, and from individuals and groups outside the department. The goal of the Iowa vision is to insure that early childhood opportunities are available to all children in Iowa. The vision's rationale…

This document provides guidelines for implementing workplace literacy programs. Project leadership selection, characteristics and skills, education and experience, and roles and responsibilities are reviewed. Community and business involvement, partnership development, and the voluntary advisory council components of a marketing workplace literacy…

Designed to meet the informational needs of both business leaders and educators who wish to develop mutually beneficial cooperative ventures, this packet contains three separate reports on public-private sector partnerships. An overview examines the contemporary focus on business and education links, the nature of partnerships at secondary and…

Providing data on school-age child care for the 1981-82 school year in Virginia and Minnesota, this study was designed to give state policymakers and program developers consumer profiles for urban, suburban, and rural residents who have various demographic characteristics and children from 5 to 14 years of age. Preceded by an executive summary,…

This report summarizes a comparative study of 15 government-designated community schools (DCSs) and 17 nondesignated schools (NDSs) in Alberta (Canada). To assist decision-makers and to identify for the public the accomplishments of the community school program, the researcher provides baseline data on 10 variables derived from the Alberta…

The East Baltimore Revitalization Project, a fifteen-year, $800 million redevelopment initiative, seeks to transform a struggling area of the city near Johns Hopkins Hospital. A unique partnership of the Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the Annie E. Casey Foundation is supporting the City of Baltimore in this…