Facing enrollment declines that date to the Great Recession and accelerated during the worst of the pandemic, community colleges are redoubling their focus on student-readiness to seem--and become--as welcoming as possible. These efforts include: (1) ramping up student equity, diversity, and inclusion; (2) becoming more trauma-informed and…

Tarrant and Dallas counties are side-by-side blocks comprising 1,772 square miles. They are home to the region's big economic centers, Fort Worth and Dallas, respectively. If you look only at the Texas Federal Reserve Banks' data on regional economic growth, the picture here is rosy. But if you look below the surface, the story is different. It…

Community colleges have an important role in supporting economic opportunity in urban areas. While urban areas generally experience high levels of economic prosperity, especially compared to rural areas, individuals who have not participated in postsecondary education and training face barriers to taking full advantage of the opportunities…

The past several decades have seen a substantial amount of time, resources, and expertise focused on producing sustainable improvement in schools at scale. Research on these efforts have highlighted how complex this challenge is, as it needs to attend to building teacher support and participation, aligning with the organizational context, and…

From leading garden tours to planning a visit for Japanese teachers and participating in community theater, middle schoolers at Fort Worth's Applied Learning Academy learn academic content by working on community projects. Students' writing skills soared as they developed, edited, and field-tested brochures and trail-guide maps for their botanical…

Despite its high employment rate, the Near Northside Neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas, has a median income more than 40% below the citywide level. In 1999, the Near Northside Partners' Council (NNPC) became one of five centers for the national Neighborhood Jobs Initiative Demonstration. After extensive planning, the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative…

The importance of partnerships between metropolitan universities, local government agencies, and community organizations to address community health issues is discussed and illustrated in the collaborative activities of North Texas University and its Fort Worth health sciences center, including a community clinic and a master's program in public…