Authentic community engagement involves substantive give and take with those outside the college who have an interest in the decisions that are made, or who potentially have a role to play in strengthening the college's work. Such engagement efforts begin with a commitment to building new or improved forms of partnership across various silos and…

This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from the…

Community colleges are facing tough challenges, and engaging faculty members--both full-time and adjunct--in the hard work of meeting these challenges is critical. Colleges can reap major benefits from meaningful engagement with faculty, yet many institutions find it difficult to do. In partnership with Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges…

Some researchers believe that collaboration between schools and community stakeholders--including families, educators, community organizations, and businesses--is the key to improving public education. However, broad and inclusive community-school partnerships are rare. Instead, we frequently hear about friction between communities and their…

What happens when local school leaders sit down to talk with teachers, parents, and other members of the community about the ends and means of local education? Can people bringing different perspectives and experiences to the issue agree on top goals for their communities? Can they settle on needed changes and decide what signifies genuine…

Efforts to improve student learning and success at community colleges are in the national policy spotlight. Colleges around the country are reviewing their institutional practices and gathering groups of education stakeholders to design and then implement changes in advising, developmental education, programs of study and curricula, student…

This report builds on and extends Public Agenda's ongoing research on the attitudes of various stakeholder groups toward higher education reform. It explores the purpose and promise of more effective engagement of those stakeholders who--at first blush, at least--appear to express the deepest resistance to the productivity agenda: faculty. The…