Presents lessons for family-school-community cooperation drawn from the work of schools in the League of Schools Reaching Out and from policy analyses by the Institute for Responsive Education. The most important policies are those that provide flexibility and respect diversity while evaluating and changing as they operate. (SLD)

The history and goals of the League of Schools Reaching Out, a national program of the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE), is described in this report. The league is IRE's principal national strategy to show how family/community/school partnerships can contribute to school restructuring aimed at increasing the academic and social success of…

To provide the conditions for a lasting equality of educational opportunity and results, schools should: (1) enter into a partnership with each family for the educational and social development of the child; and (2) lead a cooperative effort involving other agencies and organizations to create an educative community. (RDN)

Discusses collaboration between the Research and Development Center and the Institute for Responsive Education and its national reform project called the League of Schools Reaching Out. League seeks to show how school-family-community partnerships can contribute significantly to school restructuring or reform aimed at increasing all children's…

Before meaningful structural changes in the federal role in education can be made, a new style of action must be developed that would include streamlining existing patterns of national intervention so that priority emphasis is unmistakably placed on those functions appropriate to the federal role and supporting and increasing the capacity of state…

The League of Schools Reaching Out is a national project designed to study ways in which a family-community-school collaboration can contribute to school reform. This document reports the results of a 1991 survey of 42 schools belonging to the league. Results concerning strategies and practices of collaboration indicate that: (1) the level of…

Four keynote ideas can help partnerships form between communities and their schools. The first keynote is a new "social contract" for education in each community, based on agreement on values, school objectives, and group roles. The second keynote is the "public good." There exists a breakdown of community, a loss of the sense…

Examines ways to increase the effectiveness of partnerships between schools, families, and communities. Recommends using smarter communication, making the school more welcoming to families and communities, reaching out to reluctant families, enlisting parents and community agencies to help educate children, and helping families obtain support for…

Examples of effective parent and citizen involvement in schools throughout the United States are cited. Actions include a ruling in Boston that parent groups have a right to monitor classrooms in that city; a new collective bargaining law which provides open access to information about the agenda and content of collective bargaining; and the…

Schools participating in the League of Schools Reaching Out, a national reform project, offer multiple examples of practices to increase family and community involvement. These numerous efforts exist without benefit of a clear, comprehensive, and supportive policy. Developing such a system must be a national priority. (SLD)

Five years of research on collaborative practices have led the Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning to formulate 10 policy recommendations for a comprehensive program of school, family, and community partnerships to improve the academic achievement and social success of all students. (SLD)

This policy document, directed to school board members, superintendents, and principals, makes recommendations on developing school partnerships with families and communities; discusses the benefits of school partnerships for children, families, schools, teachers, and community agencies; and identifies basic principles underlying successful…

The mission of the Center of Families, Communities, Schools & Children's Learning is to conduct research, evaluation, and policy analyses aimed at increasing knowledge about how families, schools, and communities influence student motivation, learning, and development, as well as how to strengthen the connections between these three major…

Children are a part of an ecosystem composed of several institutions. What happens in any part of the ecosystem affects many or all other parts. Strategies to improve the education of disadvantaged children are most likely to work if they are based in this ecological perspective. Approaches to developing ecologically sound solutions are proposed.…

Reflecting the renewed interest in a variety of plans to increase parent and citizen participation in education, this paper divides the questions surrounding this issue into the following four categories: co-production (partnership), decision making, citizen advocacy, and parent choice. Under each of these categories the paper considers such…