Outreach and engagement that connects the Patton College at Ohio University with P-12 schools has been a strong tradition in the Southeastern Ohio/Appalachian region. In the mid-1980s, a partnership aligned with the Coalition of Essential Schools and 9 "Common Principles"' was one of the first. Alignment with 19 "Postulates" of…

Community gardening provides many benefits for students like outdoor physical activity, an understanding of plant life cycles, food production and healthy eating (Blair, 2009; Whiren, 1995). Gardening also provides hands-on learning opportunities to draw parallels between what is needed for plants to grow and what students need to be healthy. When…

Urban universities are a key resource for municipal government, businesses, community organizations, and citizens to foster partnerships for successful renewal of distressed urban neighborhoods. From its experience over the past decade, the Ohio State University has created a successful model for engagement with its neighborhoods and the City of…

Students from three schools responded very enthusiastically to community design projects. Participants in a summer course on design education created interdisciplinary projects that were taught to their K-12 students during the following academic year. This article highlights three of the many successful projects, offering suggestions for other…

Researchers and policy makers have questioned the efficacy of family-involvement interventions. They believe that more studies are needed to compare outcomes of students whose families received a partnership intervention with those who did not. The author used data from the state of Ohio to compare student attendance in elementary schools that…