A summit in Boise (Idaho) aimed to help 130 youth develop leadership skills and connect to service learning opportunities. Participants identified tolerance and substance abuse as issues of concern and generated action plans for addressing these problems. Profiles several participants and addresses the role of the community in developing healthy…

Describes how two rural Colorado communities, threatened by the loss of their elementary schools, established a charter school based in two existing facilities. Discusses the benefits of local autonomy, the value of networking with other rural charter schools, the role of the community in school innovations, and emphases on staff development and…

Controlling for precollege aptitude and other influences, a study found male intercollegiate football and basketball players tended to have significantly lower levels of second-year writing skills and third-year critical-thinking and reading-comprehension skills than nonathletes and athletes in other sports. There was little evidence of similar,…

Describes using the World Wide Web in a multilingual classroom to address different learning styles and to teach English, social studies, math, science, art, foreign countries, writing, and media literacy. Discusses parent involvement and use of technology in interdisciplinary lessons. Highlights Web sites for national standards, five reasons to…

A high school teacher describes how her classroom methods changed from traditional teacher-centered pedagogy to the active and democratic involvement of students in developing their own learning communities. Sidebars describe class projects: an oral history project that blossomed into a "Forties Festival" with 1940s alumni and the…

Identifies benefits of family involvement in the early childhood classroom for the child, parents, and teacher. Describes barriers to parent involvement: parent availability, parent and teacher awkwardness, schedule conflicts, and school resistance to full parent inclusion. Provides six principles for involving parents in their children's…

This exploratory case study investigates relationships between use of an inquiry-based instructional style and student scores on standardized multiple-choice tests. The study takes the form of a case study of physical science classes taught by one of the authors over a span of four school years. The first 2 years were taught using traditional…

Although facilitating community participation in disadvantaged schools can be difficult, this article argues that, given the structuring of schooling in contemporary western democracies, it is even more difficult than we might imagine. Drawing on Bourdieu, we attempt to elucidate the complex relations between schooling and socio-cultural contexts…

We present the cases of two families from the same middle-class community and conclude that home and school are more connected for some students and families than for others, even in the middle class where seamlessness is assumed. Home and school are more closely aligned for middle-class European-American students who read at home, engage in…

New Jersey, like many other states, is experiencing a significant influx of new immigrants--from countries such as India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Poland, Nigeria, Liberia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. In addition, New Jersey remains one of the most segregated states in the country, educating the majority of its African-American families…

Students learning a new language need a great deal of language support. Those who teach students learning English as their second language know that any language support is crucial for students' language acquisition. Therefore, English Language (EL) students need a variety of language experiences. They need opportunities to hear, write, speak, and…

Students who participate in community outreach programs develop a positive awareness for civic duty and observe applications of their learning. Teachers and students discover the most vivid benefits of service learning when they participate themselves. Students are energized and the school builds a stronger link with the community. In this…

This phenomenological study investigated the meaning of the online teaching experience of college faculty when there was an absence of physical presence. Findings show that the online experience brings new dimensions to the teaching practice when there is an absence of physical presence: (a) The length and depth of engagement during the delivery…

Seventy-five students from five medical schools participated in structured interviews to elicit their community service history and opinions regarding the relationship of community service to the medical school admissions process and the medical school curriculum. An analysis of responses indicates that service leaders were: (a) influenced by…

Service-learning (S-L) has been regarded as a relatively well-established and effective teaching pedagogy. Students who participate in S-L are more likely to learn more efficiently, more effectively, and remember more of what they have learned than their counterparts. Current studies have been done on the experiences of students in…