This report presents the findings and recommendations of a study to determine the attitudes of taxpayers toward the performance of School District 4J in Eugene, Oregon. Data revealed that only 32 percent of the taxpayers considered the district schools to be meeting community needs. Since the constituent opinions toward appropriate school…

By using the deductive or the inductive approach to needs assessment, or a combination of both approaches, school administrators can allocate physical or human resources in accordance with community priorities. (DCS)

This paper discusses some of the ways in which "low participation" in a Central American adult literacy project, often attributed by planners to "barriers" to or "lack of motivation" for literacy, revealed through ethnographic fieldwork a complex story of resistance and co-option. People engaged with literacy and the…

After nearly 14 years of non-Indian administration, Laguna Elementary School (LES) has acquired a principal and a teacher supervisor who are not merely Indian, but of the Laguna Tribe itself, making LES the only school in the Southern Pueblos Agency with Tribal members as administrators. At first glance the situation is ideal, but there are…

The purpose of this Personalized Activity Kit is to help the participant develop the skills necessary to collect facts related to concerns already gathered. Specifically, these skills are methods for collecting a full range of facts and a means for sifting out the statements that are not true or valid. Guidelines and exercises for distinguishing…

An ambitious school and community drug education program won community support after the appearance of a controversial school newspaper article featuring an anonymous interview with a drug pusher drew national attention to the problem of drug abuse in the community and schools. (DCS)

By focusing on the entire community as stakeholders in the public schools, the school board, the superintendent, and principals are forced to identify and cultivate the diverse groups in the community. Eight essential steps to developing an effective stakeholder management strategy are listed. (Author/DCS)

Describes a letter-writing campaign in which students in an English class wrote to their state representatives opposing a bill intended to restrict the viewing of certain films in the classroom. Demonstrates the students' attention to the effects of their writing on their audience, and on their own image as writers. (PRA)

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and Little Rock's Pulaski Technical College (PTC) have both used the focus group process with key constituents to understand institutional needs and priorities and public expectations of their institutions. The model followed by both institutions consists of the following three phases: forming the…

In November 1989, the College of the Canyons (CC) in Valencia, California, conducted a community survey of Santa Clarita Valley to determine residents' satisfaction with CC; use of CC services and facilities; perceptions of the value and performance of CC in six functional areas; perceptions of the quality of education; attitudes about fees, the…

This training manual is a compilation of the concepts, body of knowledge, and processes gained from a pilot project developed at Bunumbu Teachers College in Sierra Leone. The content and suggested activities refer specifically to Sierra Leone. The manual emphasizes community participation in curriculum development for health and nutrition…

Two papers by experienced Teacher Corps project personnel describing techniques and approaches used in the development of community-based education are presented in this document. The first paper, by Elaine P. Witty and Yvonne B. Miller, explores methods for identifying educational needs perceived by the community, including group discussions,…

Review of school-community relationsuip studies in Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., shows that these successful undertakings were guided by several objectives. Most important among these were (1) to develop information about means of local school-community interaction and communication and their effectiveness, (2) to become…

This handbook is organized by action areas that a school principal needs to consider in creating, maintaining, and utilizing successful involvement with the neighboring communities. Each area discusses the range of options available to the principal. Building principals are thus able to select features to fit their particular communities. The…

The proposal to do this project was the result of a two-day workshop which was attended by leaders of the Pennysbury, Pennsylvania school district and of the community who explored ways to better utilize the resources of school and community, identify needs and emerging problems, and foster the concept of home, school, and community. Phase I of…