Four steps toward changing educational policy and politics are (1) create a coherent community conversation about the new literacies; (2) change the level and kind of discourse in schools and districts; (3) conduct literacy audits; and (4) study problems that arise from this process and address them. (SK)

Administrators across the nation have encountered vigorous challenges against textbooks, practices, and procedures that critics find laden with occult and New Age values. Attacks are becoming more aggressive, better organized, and well financed. This article and accompanying sidebars discuss pressure group tactics and ways to counter them. The…

Presents the results of a study of 24 superintendents who served in 1 rural school district for 12 years or more. The superintendents interviewed shared demographic information, insights into their school boards, and professional opinions concerning the reasons for their longevity. Most-cited reasons were a stable school board, open communication,…

In 1986, Lilly Endowment launched Middle Grades Improvement Program as a major initiative to meet young adolescents' needs. This article describes development of the MGIP's "building public support" component. A survey of Indiana schools involved with this component showed that most districts developed new programs involving schools,…

Alabama's Rural Elderly Enhancement Program is a nurse-initiated project developed on a model of community participation and empowerment. The program's initial goal was to maintain the health and independence of the elderly; it was expanded to an intergenerational focus with an involvement with youth. Most of their target population is African…

Inner-city schools are plagued with problems, including huge central bureaucracies; dumbed-down, irrelevant curricula; scant resources to provide well-compensated teachers, supplies, smaller classes, and social workers; and de facto segregation. Transformative choice, operating on free market principles, is breaking up bureaucracies, demanding the…

The Workers' Educational Association conducted two projects in Northern England to develop community involvement through adult education. The projects demonstrated the part that local communities can play in setting their own agendas for community regeneration. (SK)

Presents some examples of how reading education and the community can come together. Divides the presentation into two types of community involvement: bringing the community into the schools and integrating classrooms into the community. (MG)

Georgia's Certified Literate Community Program is a state-supported, community-based effort that provides all levels of instruction--from basic skills to technical writing--to adults at all educational levels. The goal is to enable every capable adult to attain reading, speaking, writing, problem solving, and comprehension skills. (SK)

After undertaking a study of values education and ethical behavior in fall 1982, the Baltimore County (Maryland) Public Schools formed committees involving more than 2,000 people. Innovative projects involving computer ethics, coaches as role models, academic honesty, and "culture nights" to celebrate the community's ethnic backgrounds…

A psychiatric-hospital administrator describes how she agreed to be a foster parent for a troubled girl who was medically fragile. Together, and with community help, they formed Golden Buckets, an organization that provides therapeutic foster care for medically dependent children and their families. (MKA)

Describes how the Oregon Transition Support Initiative aides youth returning to communities from juvenile correctional facilities. Stresses the importance of the child, parent or guardian, educational representative, parole officers, and members of the community working together with the assigned service coordinator to ease the difficulties of the…

Describes Community Environmental Involvement (CEI), a curriculum of environmental study and community service. The curriculum combines English, social studies, and science. (CCM)

Summarizes competing approaches to the role of culture in community development and use of community media--as top-down dissemination of messages or as participatory action research. Presents a case study of the use of video for community participation and empowerment in Burkina Faso. (Author/SK)

Explores the extent to which use of mediation contributes to community involvement in child welfare. Describes a model of mediation used in four Canadian cities; discusses whether mediation enhances community involvement; and compares mediation with other child-protection processes. Provides a case example illustrating ways communities can become…