The purpose of this guide is to illuminate best practices for meaningful engagement of youth in Community Schools and to recognize youth voice as a community asset that can help advance more equitable school systems. Youth voice plays an important role in redesigning how public education functions. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education and…

Too many young people cycle in and out of prison, jails, and detention centers and face probation and parole conditions that keep them locked out of opportunity. These interactions with the criminal justice system demand the need for both equitable practices and programs that support second chances and large-scale investments in decarceration.…

It is a truism of American social policy that our nation has great success generating innovative programs that improve outcomes for participants--but that we are far less effective at moving from small, "boutique" programs into broadly applied solutions that improve the prospects of large numbers of individuals. This is certainly true in…

Rural school districts in five Arkansas towns set up school-based development corporations (SBDCs) to provide vocational and career training relevant to the needs of rural high school students and the community and to improve the economic and social welfare of the community as a whole. Each SBDC owned and operated businesses using student labor…

In this award winning project for incorporating economics study into the curriculum, a fifth grade class studied economic interdependence as it applied to their community (Barling, Arkansas). Class readings of several books dealing with the development of an economic community preceded the students' creation of a mini-Barling with elected…

A survey instrument is an efficient means of assessing public support for local gifted education programs. A questionnaire, developed for a survey of 133 individuals at post offices in rural northwest Arkansas, revealed positive attitudes toward gifted education but lack of awareness of specialized programming. (JDD)

A small rural elementary school in Bigelow, Arkansas has developed the Levelized Educational Advancement Program (LEAP) to offset diminished financial resources, limited classroom space, and reduction in professional staff. The program provides individualized basic education for 116 students in grades 4, 5, and 6, and provides daily enrichment…

Describes faculty designed program to provide individualized basic education for each of 116 grade 4, 5, and 6 students in Bigelow, Arkansas, as well as daily opportunities for enrichment through community resource persons. Summarizes community involvement, educational considerations, evaluation efforts, recommendations, and limitations. (NEC)

This report reviews the collaborative and evaluative efforts of an Arkansas education renewal consortium comprised of two universities and nine school districts. The reform originated from a smaller project that aimed to establish a broad communication base and systematic planning for meeting student needs. The current project, begun in 1985-86,…