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…

Hispanic students have higher dropout rates and lower academic achievement than Anglo students. While schools have begun to address the issue of underachievement, some community groups have implemented enrichment programs that focus on the affective domain--self-esteem, family values, and cultural pride. This digest describes and synthesizes the…

Foothill College in Los Altos, California and DeAnza College in California are two community colleges that provide higher education for international students. These colleges' commitment to provide education for international students has recently caused a controversial debate among the residents of California. Not all California residents are in…

Urban schools today face numerous challenges. Urban poverty; high mobility in and out of neighborhoods; schools with inadequate funding to cover the educational, social, and health needs of urban children and their families; and high teacher turnover are just a few of the vital issues that call for partnerships with communities, service agencies,…

This issue of the quarterly publication focuses on Achieving Secondary Education and Transition Results for Students with Disabilities. Editorial introduction notes that today's educational systems are being called upon to re-examine how they prepare students with disabilities for adult life. The shift toward greater participation by students with…

Recounts the successes of Project HAWK (Habitat Alliance and Wildlife Keepers) in Northern California. HAWK consists of various at-risk students brought together for a service learning project constructing and maintaining community gardens. Discusses how the garden was related to traditional curriculum instruction and provides information for…

The High School Puente Project, one of several outreach efforts of the University of California, is an innovative program that is designed to assist traditionally underserved students. Puente builds on community and the idea of "familia" and features a strong component of professional developments for teachers as well as structural…

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…

Say the words "college student" to someone in the street and ask that person to describe the mental image the term generates. The image will likely be that of a recent high school graduate, a young, white, middle- or upper-income person pursuing a four-year degree on a residential campus. This image is inaccurate. students of color…

The transition from middle school to high school represents a significant event in the lives of adolescents, one that necessitates support from and collaboration among teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators at both educational levels. Successful transitions place particular emphasis on ninth-grade initiatives and can create one of…

On-the-job learning experiences of 47 school administrators, representing a broad range of administrative settings and roles, are described in this collection of reflective narratives. The authors, who had completed at least one year of training with the California School Leadership Academy (CSLA), wrote of how they applied learning acquired…

A concerted effort to pool resources and coordinate work by federal, state, and local educational agencies will be necessary to overcome the fragmentation that is occurring due to the current climate of changing demographics, increasing illiteracy, and the social effects of minorities in our schools. California has shown major changes in the…

As part of a study conducted by the Learning Assessment Retention Consortium to develop a student outcomes evaluation model, data were collected on the characteristics and skill levels of 7,500 remedial writing students from 29 community colleges in Fall 1986. Three methods of data collection were used: pre-testing of reading comprehension,…

This report examines twenty-three schools in their first year of participation in a California-State-sponsored restructuring initiative called Every Student Succeeds (ESS). Four areas of restructuring are reviewed: (1) curriculum and instruction; (2) governance; (3) professional development of teachers; and (4) coordination of community resources.…

This report is designed to assist teachers in California who work with children who have been exposed to drugs before birth by providing these teachers with a catalogue of sources for support and information about how to reach and teach the children, and how to anticipate and confront behavior problems. The report contains a list of 30 federal,…