Higher education is at an inflection point in its long history due to various disruptions within the enterprise (e.g., demographic shifts, elimination of state funding, lack of trust within local communities). The most recent disruption, the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in broad and systemic pivots across all types of higher education…

Teachers' continuous improvement and its impact on student academic achievement has been the focus of initiatives and efforts toward reform and research throughout the history of education, particularly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The purpose of this study was to examine whether a professional development program grounded…

The guided pathways reform movement promises to redesign community colleges to improve student achievement by restructuring students' journeys through an institution. As colleges implement these reforms, they must engage an overworked faculty fatigued by change initiatives that have been implemented with varying degrees of faculty participation…

Prior learning assessment (PLA) is a promising tool to help adult learners returning to school acquire new skills, find improved employment prospects, and positively contribute to the broader economy. Though research has consistently found PLA leads to strong outcomes for adult students, PLA use remains low in colleges, particularly among…

Community schools are a sound education reform strategy that gets results. They start by asking local students and their families what they need to succeed in school, then they reach out to relevant community partners and use the school as the hub for organizing partnerships, services, and supports. By listening closely to the assets and needs of…

This article examines the theoretical basis of the community as it is evoked in health evaluation. In particular, we examine how hospitals carrying out Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) define communities as well as the implications for these definitions for how to study and engage community problems. We present qualitative findings from…

This study investigates school choice in a gentrified urban context and examines the ways in which school choice as rhetoric creates false perceptions, how school-choice policies can betray the very principle they espouse, and how choice (while sought after by many) can undermine community. As school choice continues to expand and gain traction…

Speed meetings are an innovative approach to creating partnerships among Extension experts and university health researchers. Extension educators play a pivotal role in providing community-based education, building partnerships across the state, and disseminating local research on a community level. The Extension Health Research team at Michigan…

The paper explores the processes by which two Australian rural communities established Community Learning Plans (CLPs). It acknowledges the role of CLPs as contributors to social and economic change through influencing employment rates, income equity, social cohesion and reduction in poverty. In addressing the research question: What factors…

Innovation that benefits children does not always come from formal institutions. Communities around the world are finding creative ways to fill in the gaps in services and enrichment when the schools or other government-backed programs fall short.

Social workers have an ethical obligation to the consumers and communities they serve to draw on practice-relevant research evidence in planning and executing interventions. A model for using evidence in social work practice is proposed, which rests on a foundation of competence in the common factors of helping relationships. The model integrates…

With origins as a critical pedagogy, service-learning has potential to facilitate students' development as active citizens. However, whether critical service-learning occurs in practice still remains unclear. In this study, we explored service-learning practice by examining students' perceived outcomes within at a midsize urban university in New…

Unacceptably high attrition rates present a challenge for American community college administrators. Paradoxically, community colleges have been denoted in fewer than 25 percent of the research conducted with regard to the potential benefits of cohort learning communities. This qualitative case study was conducted with 10 students from the…

Each community has a complex makeup of intricate systems, cultures, and resources. Developing relevant and lasting systems for safe and supportive school environments requires communities, and the people and institutions within them, to be at the center. Tackling complex problems requires change within and across institutions and local systems and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of community college presidents regarding developmental education. A mixed method sampling technique combining convenience and purposeful sampling was used to identify five presidents in North Carolina and three presidents in Virginia to participate in the study. Results of…