Reform of the undergraduate nursing curriculum at Pace University evolved through a faculty partnership. Grant support enabled faculty development, identification of new community-based clinical sites, and opportunities for faculty clinical practice. Stronger relationships with community agencies were one outcome. (SK)

Kinchela Boys' Home on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, was established by the state's Aborigines Protection Board for Aboriginal boys and youths in 1924 and closed in 1970. By the 1930s the place had become known as a notorious carceral, poorly managed and psychologically isolated. An overdue government enquiry in 1940 concluded that it…

This book tells the story of an innovative approach to educational change in urban schools. Using a case study approach, the book describes how working class parents, public school teachers, clergy, social workers, business partners, and other engaged citizens have worked to improve education in inner-city schools. Their combined efforts are…

This study examined how community organizations can use research to identify community education interests and to influence school systems to serve those interests. A case study of the Southeast Education Task Force in Baltimore, Maryland, analyzed the organization's efforts to develop a school facility plan and to persuade the school system to…

Since the state takeover, the Philadelphia school district has created a new governance model, in which for-profits, non-profits, and universities receive contracts to manage schools. Further, these and other organizations also receive contracts to provide a range of additional services. The shift to a public/private institutional structure,…

In this article, the author reports some 3,800 near-simultaneous "house parties" organized throughout Pennsylvania to call on their federal lawmakers to put more money into education. The parties, in which three-quarters of them were organized by teachers such as Jane Dugdale, are the main election-season event of a new coalition of…

Analyzes five community-university planning organizations and presents guidelines for their formation. (Editor/PG)

In Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Oakland, California and Philadelphia, to name a few cities where it has been active, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has emerged as a major player in K-12 in education issues. Its army of organizers has tackled everything from a lack of stop signs to such vexing issues as teacher…

This report reviews the activities, strategies, successes, and problems of diverse school reform efforts across a 14-state sample of community organizations. In 1999 and 2000, interviewers visited over 40 organizations and conducted telephone interviews with dozens of other organizations involved in education reform. They met with directors,…

This report explores the perspectives, issues, and capacity building needs of 51 community organizations that are fighting for better public schools nationwide. It analyzes a series of interviews conducted between July 2000 and March 2002. The interviews involved organizers, senior staff, and parent leaders. Overall, respondents described a range…

The City-Wide Educational Coalition was founded to serve the needs of parents working to effect major change in the Boston school system. An account of the program activities of the Coalition during the 1976-77 school year is presented in this document. The responsibilities and work of various projects are described. Staff members of the projects…

This annotated bibliography was compiled as a library research project at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Part I of the listing deals with decentralization as a structural feature of the local political system. Part II examines the process of local citizen participation. Parts III and IV focus on community control in the decentralization…

This paper illustrates the complexity of the organizations and political processes at work in organizing for school reform in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to community organizations, Local School Councils have emerged as their own force in organizing and advocating to improve both individual schools and citywide policies. Citywide education…

School reform in Chicago, the third largest school district in the country, has been a major public concern for decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) suffered through financial crises, a bloated bureaucracy, and repeated teacher strikes, as academic achievement plummeted and dropout rates soared. In 1987, U.S. Secretary…