Based on the premise that school reform efforts must consider the needs of at-risk children, this paper discusses parallel reform efforts that focus on community service. The first part discusses logical linkages between community service and "at-risk" education and describes how Arizona is attempting to formalize these linkages within…

This article provides resources for school-community collaboration to support at-risk students and their families in rural settings. Rural schools and their communities must work together efficiently and economically to counteract problems such as geographic isolation, shortage of resources, economic decline, lack of political power and…

Arizona's Serve-America Project is a K-12 community service program funded by the National and Community Service Act of 1990. Through formal school/community agency and youth organization/community agency partnerships, the project is designed to: (1) encourage school-age and out-of-school youth to volunteer their services; (2) increase the number…

John Merrow, president of Learning Matters, Inc., has been reporting on K-12 education since 1974, but only recently has he begun to draw attention to higher education. This award-winning broadcaster is shedding light on the underbelly of higher education--and is arguing that something must be done before it's too late. This article presents the…

Arizona's Serve-America program, administered by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), began in fiscal year 1992-93 under the auspices of the National and Community Service Act of 1990. Serve-America links community service projects with schools and youths in grades K-12. This second annual report documents the second year of project…

This report addresses the issue of developmental education. Among the data presented is the number of high school graduates who were placed in developmental courses in English, reading, and mathematics. Included are abstracts of information submitted upon request by the following community colleges: Cochise, Cococino, Eastern Arizona, Maricopa,…

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, and the recent influx of Hispanics has turned some states into "majority-minority" populations. Texas has announced that it has joined California, New Mexico and Hawaii in the club, with a 50.2 percent minority population. According to March 2002 U.S. Census Department data,…

Arizona's high school dropout rate is nearly double the national average of 9 percent, with a significant number of its dropouts being students from economically and socially disadvantaged ethnic minority backgrounds. The Arizona Minority Education Policy Analysis Center conducted a series of roundtable discussions with school administrators,…