While the co-production of knowledge through community-engaged research is intended to be a reciprocally beneficial process, academic institutions have often devalued community expertise by treating community organizations as subjects rather than co-creators of knowledge. Drawing from Black Feminist Epistemology, this ethnographic study examines…

Utilizing critical geography, critical history, and critical educational studies as guideposts, this article examines community organizing and school district partnerships as relevant to improving urban public education reform efforts and schooling practices within the United States. Proceeding in four parts, part one discusses the kinds of…

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…

Montclair Cares About Schools (MCAS) is a citizen-activist group in Montclair, New Jersey, that used Facebook, emails, and online petitions to inform and organize citizens on local educational policy issues. Emerging in response to a new superintendent's plans to reshape Montclair schools with new teacher evaluations, administrative hires, and…

Urban districts throughout the nation are contending with declining enrollment, aging facilities in disrepair, persistently low student achievement, increased competition with charters, and severe fiscal constraints. Philadelphia is a case in point. Over the past year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was forced to borrow $304 million…

New York City's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, represents a dramatic shift from his predecessor Michael Bloomberg in the area of education. Bloomberg was a national trendsetter on market reforms focused on privatization, testing, and competition. De Blasio was elected on an agenda of classroom investments, student supports, parent and community…

A college-based program that combines training, direct support, and technical assistance was found to produce significant gains in bonding and bridging social capital and key political attributes among low-income, minority, and immigrant groups organizing to enhance their power to influence public school politics and policies in New York City.…

In dealing with special interest groups, principals should evaluate their own prejudices, develop active listening skills, establish a key communicator system, and involve special interest group leaders in planning new programs. (TE)

This handbook describes activities and strategies that have been used successfully by community organizations to promote school desegregation. The information presented is based, in part, on findings from the Rand Corporation's evaluation of the nonprofit organization program of the Emergency School Aid Act. Specific actions and strategies that…

In the early 1970s, thousands of Mexican-origin students, parents, and community members participated in legal and political actions against the Houston public schools. Their actions were sparked by the school district's effort in 1970 to circumvent a desegregation court order by classifying Mexican American children as "white,"…

This book examines the efforts of Valley Interfaith--a community-based organization in the south Texas borderlands--to improve the living conditions of low-income residents and immigrants and the public schools their children attend. Valley Interfaith is unusual in that it crosses the boundary separating the worlds of community organizing and…

This book analyzes how community-based organizations in low income urban neighborhoods can promote reform of their local public schools. Chapter 1, "Reassessing the Declining Urban Neighborhood," discusses the sources of urban decline in terms of a structural relationship between "haves" and "have-nots." Chapter 2,…