MANY SHORT ARTICLES DESCRIBING AND EVALUATING WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED DURING THE FIRST SEVERAL MONTHS OF THE FORD FOUNDATION GREAT CITIES IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM IN PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA ARE INCLUDED. SEVERAL SHORT ARTICLES CONCERNING SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES OF THE STAFF, TEACHERS, PARENTS, AND PUPILS INVOLVED SUPPLEMENT THE EVALUATION. THE ARTICLES…

Describes development and preliminary implementation of the Community Education Program on Home Rule, a statewide program to aid local communities in educating citizens about the possibility of modifying their municipal government under the provisions of Pennsylvania's Home Rule Charter and Optional Plans Law. (JG)

The statistical data generated by the Pennsbury, Pennsylvania school district's assessment of the needs and resources of the community are presented here. The study itself consisted of two phases: (1) an Opinion Inventory to find out how a random sampling of community and school staff felt about the ideas of community education, and (2)…

This book demonstrates through case studies and expert analyses the impressive educational gains children can make when the best educational research, policy, and practice are aligned. This volume is a valuable resource to aspiring leaders, educational researchers, and current practitioners and a must-read for anyone who cares about the public…

The Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The overarching goal of the Plus 50…

A COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM WAS INITIATED AND DEVELOPED IN THE MON-YOUGH REGION OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. TO CORRECT SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC NEEDS THROUGH COMPREHENSIVE ADULT TRAINING, RETRAINING, AND EMPLOYMENT PROJECTS. THE MON-YOUGH COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE WAS FORMED THROUGH THE COOPERATIVE EFFORTS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE…

Although critical ethnographers have explored in some depth the ways that social critique informs how youth assess their schooling experiences, the implications of social critique by educators themselves have been of much less interest. Yet, numerous professional educational movements have been wrought from social critique or, at the very least,…

In an era of high-stakes accountability, school leaders often face contradictory pressures as they strive to improve student performance. They must meet the federal mandate of NCLB for student achievement; at the same time, many believe that NCLB constrains their professional judgment about how to best teach and assess students in the context of…

Relative to other fields, social work has been slow to adopt geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool for research and practice. This paper argues that GIS can benefit social work by: (1) continuing and strengthening the social survey tradition; (2) providing a framework for understanding human behavior; (3) identifying community needs and…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

Effective university-community collaborations can contribute directly to the welfare of children, youth, and families if the collaboration is mutually beneficial. As Tiamiye (2000, 29) states, "little is, however, known about participants' views of university-community partnerships." By examining the agencies' perspectives in the process…

The author analyzes his experiences teaching literature courses in which he encourages students to research works by people from their hometowns. He argues that relating literature to concepts of "home" makes English classes more accessible to students while also helping them reflect on important issues in ecocriticism. (Contains 31…

A long time ago, revamping a school's telecommunications infrastructure was up there with scaling Mount Everest as one of the toughest challenges around. First up was the task of finding a new PBX. Then came the chore of rewiring the campus. Before long, project costs skyrocketed. Even well-funded IT departments struggled to get the job done.…

This student workbook is for 12- to 14-year-olds participating in the Pennsylvania 4-H "Opening the Doors of Your Community" project which is designed to involve youth in improving the quality of community life, learning about the role and functions of local government, understanding public issues, becoming involved in the process of…

WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF A RECOMMENDATION FOR DECENTRALIZATION, THIS SPEECH DESCRIBES P.S. 192M IN HARLEM, WHICH IS ADMINISTERED BY AN INDEPENDENT PRINCIPAL WHO IS THE KEY FIGURE IN DETERMINING THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION HIS STUDENTS RECEIVE. HOWEVER, A PRINCIPAL USUALLY DOES NOT HAVE THIS FREEDOM AND IS SOMETIMES LIMITED BY THE "BUREAUCRATIC…