Describes how Washington & Jefferson College mended fences with its community while Northwestern University faces continued tensions. (EV)

Describes several low-cost practices school administrators use to communicate with parents and the community, such as using school board meetings as a mini-information forum, plugging into the power structure, asking for opinions, participating in a community newsletter, conducting audits of a school climate, encouraging your employees and…

From 1986 to 1988, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory sought to identify and describe the characteristics of promising parent involvement programs in their five-state region. They found seven essential elements, including written policies, adequate administrative support, training, a partnership approach, two-way communication,…

Argues that literacy is always part of social relationships. Discusses school versus community literacy, and offers examples of social relationships of literacy. (SR)

Argues that, by not engaging the community in an exploration of the many ways the arts, including theater, can nurture personal and intellectual growth, teachers may have contributed to the failure to name the arts as a critical area of concern. (SR)

Describes the Working Conference process, an approach for involving a diverse group of people to discuss and then create action plans around critical school/community issues. Before the conference, participants are asked to prepare themselves and, during the conference, to use their knowledge, experience, and perspectives to collaborate on issues…

Asserts that the prevailing model of academic professionalism inhibits faculty members' engagement in their communities and restrains discovery of new knowledge. Proposes an alternative community-oriented model and suggests that reflective practice, epistemological inclusiveness, and redesigned incentives structures are needed to encourage the…

Many educators today are discussing new visions to transform their schools into communities. The idea is that schools should be communities of learners rather than organizations that turn out students as products (Furman and Starratt 2002; Sergiovanni 1994). But for schools to become communities of learners, a major upheaval in the way educators…

This article highlights the birth and current benefits of a partnership between Keene State College and Keene Public Library. It is a smaller one-on-one partnership that represents a rarer model than that of consortia and joint-use library partnerships. The authors offer additional ideas for partnering with local community groups in order to…

This qualitative study in a Midwestern US city examines how school and community-based organizations support homeless students' connections to education-related resources and relationships. Drawing from organizational brokerage theory, which delineates how individuals' chances to thrive are shaped by the organizations in which they participate,…

This dissertation examines the issue of academic preparation of future professional instructional designers in the context of higher academic institutions. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. The dissertation is comprised of three publishable…

The past two decades have brought the second largest wave of immigration in U.S. history. This has led to a rapid and unprecedented influx of immigrants to the Pacific Northwest as well as a rise in the number of English language learners (ELLs) in schools. Between 2002-2003 and 2007-2008, the Northwest's annual growth in ELL enrollment was nearly…

This dissertation explores the notion of participatory community mapping (PCM) for Indigenous knowledge production. Three major questions were posed in the study. First, how can PCM foster Indigenous knowledge production and documentation? Second, how can PCM be used to include local voice and input in mapping projects, and third, how can adult…

This study describes the collaborative partnership between a Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, an elementary school and the College of Education at a public university. The partnership utilized a mentoring system consisting of elementary students, college students, elementary teachers and university faculty. Benefits of the various…

"Listening to the River" (LTTR) is a watershed science education project funded by the National Science Foundation. The project aims to deliver watershed education experiences in and around Traverse City, Michigan, and also to develop a model that can be replicated in other locations. Inverness Research was contracted by the…