The Kalamazoo Promise, announced in 2005, is an innovative college-scholarship program available to every graduate of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Schools. Programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise, which is being emulated in cities across the United States, open new avenues for the acquisition of human capital regardless of income level or…

The majority of the Houma people live in the southern portions of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes in south Louisiana. This author grew up in the Houma community that had formed in lower Plaquemines Parish, about thirty miles north of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Houma community there was centered near the town of Venice with extended…

Since the early 1980s, service providers and area agencies on aging, that is, the aging network, have developed a number of strengths as they built a community-based long-term-care system in most states. Many area agencies and providers now have the capacity to assess the needs of older persons, identify appropriate services, and administer…

Gardens are complex and require a variety of skills. Gross- and fine-motor activities, science concepts, language and literacy development, math, and community involvement are all part of the preschool gardening project the authors describe. They list gardening books for children and suggest container gardens for urban school settings. The authors…

When the bell rings at the end of a school day, millions of children are left to their own devices while they wait for their families to return home at the end of the work day. Findings from a study conducted by the Afterschool Alliance, "America After 3PM," show that 15.1 million children are unsupervised when the school day ends. The…

The "BAS for Family Child Care" is the first valid and reliable tool for measuring and improving the overall quality of business and professional practices in family child care settings. It is applicable for multiple uses, including program self-improvement, technical assistance and monitoring, training, research and evaluation, and public…

This anthology places art at the center of meaningful urban education reform. Providing a fresh perspective on urban education, the contributors describe a positive, asset-based community development model designed to tap into the teaching/learning potential already available in urban cities. Rather than focusing on a lack of resources, this…

Many new ideas arise at the borders of systems. Academics and educators engage in research and reform of the education system itself, but much that is innovative in today's schools originates outside the classroom, in a burgeoning set of programs and partnerships with the voluntary or community sector, and in the relationships being established by…

This article considers various aspects that affect mathematically talented students and may have a positive or negative impact on their continuing pursuits to learn more mathematics. Here, the authors present five foundational issues such as: (1) The child deserves all the help he needs, including additional resources, experiences, and…

Portals have become indispensable for organizations of all types trying to establish themselves on the Web. Unfortunately, there have only been a few evaluative studies of portal software and even fewer of open source portal software. This study aims to add to the available literature in this important area by proposing and testing a checklist for…

Adolescence is a pivotal developmental stage for establishing patterns of behaviors that can last a lifetime. Adolescents' choices have a significant impact on future opportunities. Education can have tremendous influence on the overall success of an individual. For example, a quality education can affect employability, which indirectly influences…

The purpose of the study was to make a qualitative assessment of the impact of school consolidation on several rural Nebraska communities that have recently lost their schools. This research uses a multiple-case study design with interviews conducted in three Nebraska communities. The data from this research fell into four broad themes: social…

The Baby Steps Program (Easter Seals of New Hampshire, 2003) is a child-find program that introduces developmental specialists into health care settings to conduct developmental screenings with children during well-child visits. This article presents the Baby Steps Program model, summaries of screening and referral data, and the results of 3 focus…

Research investigating neighborhood effects on children and families has been largely deficit and individual-focused, investigated structural variables, and has typically produced equivocal findings and small effect sizes. We suggest an approach focused on community strengths and resources that stresses the role of measures of social interaction…

This study in Spain explored three aspects of older adult volunteering (motivations, satisfaction, and perceptions of benefits and drawbacks) and examines to what extent these aspects are influenced by the type of organization and other factors (sociodemographic variables and level of volunteering). The sample consisted of 88 older adults…