Describes the federally funded program conducted by Afram Associates, Inc. which provides service to nine Parent Implemented Programs located in nine cities in six states. (MB)

The author of "In the Shelter of Each Other" addresses how to remedy lack of community that is disorienting families. Parents work too many hours. Adults are spending too much time with TV and computers, voting down bond issues, and providing less communal space for children. Parents need to be convinced that creating community…

Discusses the importance of symbols, rituals, events, stories, and ceremonies in defining and sustaining a school's core educational values. Provides school-based examples. (PKP)

Shortly after a beloved teacher's death, a Wellesley, Massachusetts, high-school principal decided to create a wall of recognition displaying the names of people (retired at least 2 years) who had made significant contributions. The recognition ceremony is combined with a dinner and spring concert and has become a community-building event. (MLH)

Discusses research-based approaches for strengthening students' sense of community in school: Actively cultivate respectful, supportive relationships among students, teachers, and parents; emphasize common purposes and ideals; provide regular opportunities for service and cooperation; provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for autonomy…

Teacher describes yearlong experience with the inclusion of an autistic boy in her second-grade class, including his effect on classmates. Offers advice to other teachers. (PKP)

The traditional back-to-school assembly, featuring lengthy readings of student handbook rules and restrictions, counters visions of the positive school environment featured in many mission statements. This year's Colfax (California) High School program, based on graduates' musings about the school's familial behavior toward them, offered a message…

Today, fewer city blocks preserve the confidence of lifestyle and urban geography that sustain traditional games and outdoor play. Large groups of children choosing sides and organizing Red Rover games are no longer commonplace. Teachers must encourage free play; urban planners must build cities that are safe play havens. (MLH)

School shootings are one symptom of a larger problem: the breakdown of community, mutual caring, and moral orientation. For many students, character and virtues will be acquired only in school. Curricular and instructional approaches to character education vary, along with strategies to encourage student discussion. (Contains 9 references.) (MLH)

Today's schools are too big. If smaller schools and classroom settings are beneficial and less costly, why do we continue to operate and build large schools? Perhaps committing to smaller schools would require us to rethink the leadership, management, and organization theories that dominate school administration. Authority should be vested in…

After describing social-emotional learning, provides a framework for implementing an effective program that includes, for example, building connections between students and their schools, involving families and communities as partners. Describes three exemplary social and emotional learning programs for grades K-6: Caring School Community,…

As one survey shows, although collegiality within academic departments determined secondary teachers' innovation norms, conceptions of students, sense of subject area, and enthusiasm, teacher commitment and pride are primarily products of district-level influences. Teacher autonomy without strong district professional community, with its…

Although teacher effectiveness research prescriptions predominate in today's classrooms, educational research is being influenced by the work of Piagetian cognitive psychologists and educational anthropologists like Shirley Brice Heath and cultural psychologists like Michael Cole. These experts stress the importance of personal invention and the…

Although both professionalism and leadership are prescribed as cures for school problems, the two concepts are antithetical. The more professionalism is emphasized, the less leadership is needed. Teachers become more committed and self-managing when schools become true communities, freeing principals from the burden of trying to control people.…

A Colorado high school dramatically increased its effectiveness after its staff committed to creating an intimate, nurturing environment for students. Achieving this mission involved teaching students the prosocial skills necessary to cope with any authoritarian system, creating a culture fostering positive relationships and cooperation,…