This installment of "Reports from the Field" demonstrates how the building of community-based digital archives in academic libraries can support campus diversity initiatives and spur greater engagement with community concerns. As college campuses rapidly become more diverse along racial and ethnic lines, social issues concerning race and…

Community coalition action theory (CCAT) depicts the processes and factors that affect coalition formation, maintenance, institutionalization, actions, and outcomes. CCAT proposes that community context affects coalitions at every phase of development and operation. We analyzed data from 12 "Connect to Protect" coalitions using inductive…

The author uses geospatial analysis to examine the "educational opportunity spaces" of two adjacent urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Organizing insights are gathered from Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological perspectives on human development, which posit that students are significantly impacted by multiple environmental…

Penn State Hazleton sits at the very edge of town, on the top of a large hill, literally, as far removed from Hazleton as it possibly can be. Only a handful of professors actually live in Hazleton, and nearly all students return home for the weekend. Compared with the main campus, the student population at Penn State Hazleton is quite diverse.…

High-poverty schools in rural areas and small towns are under attack from state policy makers who want to consolidate these schools in order to save money. In addition to calls for consolidation, rural schools also are threatened by unfair and inadequate funding formulas.

Isolation and lack of services for members of minority groups can be real hurdles for colleges in small towns and rural areas that want to diversify their work forces. The chance to meet people from the same background, worship in a shared faith, or share cultural interests can make or break someone's living experience. This article describes…

Social capital refers to the nature of ties within a social unit, as well as the unit's external relationships. We draw from organizational sociology and political science, and also build upon existing insights in school board research, to offer an approach that address the effects of "bonding" (internal ties) and "bridging"…

Examined the extent to which preschool inclusion practices were evident in diverse communities, and identified the child, maternal, and service-provider characteristics that significantly related to such practices. Found that the paradigm shift away from intensive, segregated educational programs toward fully inclusive, community-based programs…