Now that federal Pell Grant funding has been reinstated for learners who are incarcerated, the field is in flux. Higher education in prison programs and their home institutions, departments of correction, and accreditation and oversight bodies are all adapting and developing their practices to meet new policy and regulation needs. Two major facets…

Throughout 2020, America's Promise Alliance worked with five communities across the country that wanted to extend and deepen their efforts to support young people's social, emotional, and cognitive development. Each community planned cross-sector convenings to inspire action that would result in the approaches to learning that prioritize young…

In the past, parents of children with disabilities have spearheaded several policies for individuals with disabilities. However, little is known about their experiences with legislators. To address this gap, focus groups and surveys about legislative advocacy were conducted with 127 parents of individuals with disabilities across four states. The…

The authors focus on a collective biography of 12 women social work educators, all either tenured or in tenure lines, from five different universities at the time of the study. The participants represent several aspects of macro practice including administration, planning, community practice, and policy. Beginning with reflections about coming…

Can simply talking about policy strengthen democracy? Drawing on data collected for case studies of one Canadian and two U.S. grassroots organizations, we demonstrate that taking part in policy dialogues hosted by grassroots organizations enables participants to gain greater clarity regarding policy issues, policy processes, and citizens'…

Purpose: This article focuses on the role of school and district leadership in the development and implementation of reform aimed at increasing racial and religious tolerance. It chronicles the rise of intercultural and democratic citizenship curriculum in three North American sites--Springfield, Massachusetts, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, and San…

The HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands (honkfest.org) is an independent, grassroots, non-commercial weekend festival held each autumn in Somerville, Massachusetts. It is a moving spectacle of colourful marching bands, gigantic puppets, creative bikers, jugglers, hoopers, flag twirlers and stilt walkers, interspersed with unions, activist…

Adult English as a second language (ESL) educators have struggled to move beyond skills-based instruction to implement more student-centered, contextualized pedagogy that prepares students to become active citizens and to solve real-world problems, even as the growing number of immigrants make adult education increasingly important for determining…

Research exploring the impact of social class on family and school relationships indicates that families with high levels of socioeconomic status (SES) possess resources that enable participation in traditionally accepted forms of family engagement (Henderson and Mapp, in, A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community…

Arts education has been a low priority in the nation's public schools for more than 30 years. In some communities, a countermovement to this dwindling presence of arts education in the schools has developed in the form of initiatives aimed at coordinating schools, cultural institutions, community-based organizations, foundations, and/or…

The National Institute on Out-of-School-Time (NIOST) investigated partnership strategies between community-based organizations conducting afterschool programs and the schools they serve. NIOST used in-depth phone interviews and site visits to collect information on several community-based organization afterschool programs and their affiliated…

Presented is the 1974 annual report of the Office for Children, an agency responsible for monitoring and coordinating all services for children in Massachusetts. Among the aspects covered are administrative organization; the development and implementation of a special budget for new and expanded children's services; the formation of 39…

Based on a study by the Department of Community Service Education, Cornell University, to evaluate human service planning (HSP) nationwide, this paper discusses the premises that HSP may be defined as community learning and that the community (according to the Robert Boyd and Jerold Apps model for adult education) is both a beneficiary of and…

A study regarding the implementation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in four eastern Massachusetts prime sponsor areas (Cambridge, Lowell, New Bedford, and the Balance of State) was done to (1) examine the impact of the decisions made during the implementation of CETA on manpower services and institutions, program…