Gateway Public Schools--a middle and high school serving a diverse group of about 800 students in San Francisco--was founded in 1998 by parents of students with learning disabilities seeking a supportive environment for their children. As a public charter organization with a lottery entrance system, Gateway seeks to admit a student body that…

Social return on investment (SROI) offers a new strategy to measure and communicate the value of outcomes achieved by programs that provide social, health, and education services to children and their families. It can be a powerful tool for demonstrating the monetary value of programs and services and for communicating that value in a way that can…

Social return on investment (SROI) analysis offers a practical new approach for measuring and communicating the value of outcomes achieved by programs that provide social, health, and educational services to children and their families. This guide highlights the key steps in conducting SROI research, issues in data-gathering and analysis, as well…

An overview is provided of the development of the Dallas County Community College District's (DCCCD's) Community Development Program, highlighting its accomplishments during its first two and one-half years of operation, and the District's plans for the future. Section I offers introductory comments and defines community development as the process…

Traces the history of Arthurdale, West Virginia, a homestead community established by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1933. Includes Arthurdale's community projects, activities, and schools. (RW)

Describes a Michigan social studies curriculum enrichment project that combines historical analysis with documentary photographs of urban residents. The project utilizes photographs, public history, and oral histories to introduce middle school students to the concept of community. Includes photographs of urban activities and discussion questions.…

This handbook was created to serve as a guide for all programs. It describes mentor roles, responsibilities, and successful individuals engaged in one-to-one relationships in mentoring programs. It describes mentor roles, responsibilities, and successful strategies and techniques designed to assist mentors in their work as role models and trusted…

This book provides a powerful and clear picture of some of the outstanding programs designed and implemented in the United States to provide young adolescents with rich, meaningful, and powerful learning activities with community service. The book is comprised of two parts with 18 essays and an introduction. The essays reflect a range of…

This book incorporates teaching strategies to enhance middle school science and social studies using service learning. The book was developed by teachers who participated in a series of institutes conducted by the Social Science Education Consortium and the Science Discovery Program at the University of Colorado during the summers of 1993 and…

Describes a history program at the Suzanne Middle School, Walnut, California, in which students create, design, and promote local history activities. Emphasizes the accomplishments of the program, including a rise in the school's state test scores from the twenty-second percentile to the ninety-fourth percentile. (RW)

Maintains that content-rich, meaningful curricula can provide learning opportunities to all students. Describes an informal, nonprofit community-based learning program that extends the school's curriculum beyond the classroom by providing access to multimedia resources. Presents an 11-step collaborative model for the project. (CFR)

A summer program for gifted middle students implemented the Enrichment Triad Model through community activities in which students learned the skills and tools of a geographer. Considerations for conducting such a program within a school include teacher selection, scheduling, and parent involvement. (CL)

Procedures to help intermediate-grade social studies teachers implement a local history unit are provided. Although intended for teachers in Iowa, the guide can easily be used by educators in any state. The procedures are organized around three major generalizations: (1) buildings and artifacts are resources in explaining the history of a…

Service learning can help students learn specific skills and concepts, particularly in social studies. The article examines characteristics of good middle school service learning projects, explains how to begin a project, discusses the benefits of service learning, presents an example of service learning in Wren Middle School, Piedmont (South…

Aurora, Colorado's Horizon Middle School maintains good community relations partly by housing a branch of the city library, a city-sponsored community center, three classrooms for a preschool, a sixth-grade class, a boy scout troop, soccer teams, local homeowners' associations, and two church groups. (PGD)