This study investigated the relationships between degree of perceived neighborhood supportiveness and demographic characteristics of neighborhood residents. Positive relationships were found on six characteristics. Study subjects were married, middle-class, South Carolina educators. The Perception of Neighborhood Supportiveness Scale (PNSS) was…

The most common reason for the failure of schools to offer sex education is fear of negative community reaction. Ways to break down opposition by community or church groups to the implementation of sex education programs are discussed. (CJ)

Synanon is a community that offers the elderly an alternative to the lives of quiet desperation that many experience. It explores the myth that older people are inflexible and cannot change. (Author)

Discusses the author's experience of creating and directing a community-based, oral history play. Reflects on the pedagogical significance of community-based theater. Proposes the students involved were transformed even as they strove to transform the community. Concludes that the give-and-take between radically reinventing cultural constructions…

Focuses First Amendment claims within the public schools: (1) claims of students to free expression; (2) right of students to receive information; (3) right of teachers to use materials and teaching methods of choice; and (4) right of parents to have their children exempted from assertedly objectionable materials. (MLF)

Examines the process by which real estate developers construct rural images of urban places, exploit anti-urban, pro-rural, and pro-community sentiments, and commodify and appropriate the established meanings of places. Uses Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as a case study. Contains 47 references. (SV)

Describes the 77 community areas of Chicago, and provides information resources available for compiling community profiles. Discusses uses of a community profile and issues in creating one. Highlights include maps, historical information, census figures, planning and development statistics, and aerial photographs. Appendices provide a list of…

Analysis of employment change data for 3,101 counties during recent national recession and recovery periods found that factors derived from human ecological theory (density, infrastructure age, unionization, labor force education, and crime rate) best predicted local competitive dynamics across all business-cycle phases. Contains 60 references.…

Describes an approach to monitoring and assessing the processes and outcomes associated with the movement of communities from dependency to self-determination and self-reliance. Presents a Self-Determination/Reliance model constructed along dimensions of accountability, decision making, information, knowledge and skills, and resource mobilization.…

Presents a case study of a virtual professional community for Israeli educators that is built on four "self-serving" principles: restriction, guidance, involvement, and leadership. Describes the four membership phases and their respective principles, and shows how each of these phases contributed to and advanced the individual members…

Analyzed perceptions of the local residential environment and self-reported health in four socially contrasting Scottish neighborhoods. Survey data indicated that the neighborhood of residence predicted perceptions of problems and neighborhood cohesion. Self-assessed health, mental health, and recent symptoms related to perceived local problems…

The present study examined the relationship between characteristics of neighborhoods (with set physical boundaries and relatively homogeneous populations) and personal well-being as mediated by sense of community and neighboring behavior. A randomly selected representative sample of 345 residents living in non-apartment dwellings in Winnipeg,…

Using PISA 2000 data, this article examines cross-national variation in rural mathematics achievement among 15-year olds in 24 industrialized nations. Rural mathematics scores were significantly lower than scores in urban and medium-size communities in 14 of 24 countries. However, patterns were complex. Most commonly, a linear relationship…

How do and should students develop--emotionally, socially, intellectually, morally, and spiritually--on a college campus and, more particularly, as members of a residential learning community? What advantages does a learning community offer over the more fragmented and specialized cafeteria of courses in place on most campuses? What new structures…

School connectedness includes liking school and positive relations with teachers and peers. School connectedness is associated with a variety of positive health outcomes. The goal of this study was to identify characteristics of students, schools, and school neighborhoods that are related to school connectedness. In the Health Behavior in…