This article describes the development and ongoing operations of the GreenEriePA.org project, a portal to all things environmental in Erie County, PA. Through regular input from community partners, GreenEriePA turned into a much larger, long-term project than the faculty coordinators at Gannon University, Erie, PA, originally anticipated. We…

Community schools have gained attention as mechanisms to bring about equitable access to high-quality educational resources, extended learning time and opportunities, integrated student supports, and collaborative engaging relationships with parents and communities. In order to effectively create conditions that provide equitable access to such…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions. Each issue of this annual newsletter…

Each issue of this annual newsletter focuses on a particular area of Kettering's research. The 2015 issue focuses on a yearlong review of Kettering's research over time. This issue contains the following articles that address this review: (1) How Kettering Discovered Democracy (David Mathews); (2) Key Events in KF History (Collette McDonough); (3)…

Central Michigan University's Chamber of Commerce/University Business Education Services Committee has been revitalized by the committee's decision in 1982 to share program-generating responsibility with more than 900 university faculty members and administrators. The numerous successful programs that have resulted, including faculty-conducted…

In the University of Toledo/Springfield Local Schools Project, school districts, community councils, and teacher education institutions collaborated to assess school improvement needs and design personnel development programs. Results of this Teacher Corps program are described. (PP)

The Phillips Neighborhood Healthy Housing Collaborative learned valuable lessons through its work on two community-based participatory research projects in which it established a principled model of shared power and identifiable, mutual community-university benefits. A community impact statement (CIS) has evolved from this work. Like an…

Through means such as parent choice, participation in a home visitor program, and work with a church group, "hard to reach" parents can become involved in the following aspects of education: (1) decision-making; (2) home-school coordinated activities; (3) advocacy; (4) school support; and (5) parent education and support. (BJV)

This paper argues that effective schools meet their educational objectives when they promote collaboration and coordination among all school publics via the participative decision-making School Development Program Model. Steps and guidelines are listed to integrate the program into school systems. In addition, the model's structure, functions, and…

This program manual describes the Communication Center at Joseph Kerr Junior High School in Sacramento County, California, which was established in 1975 to prevent student high risk behavior and to encourage positive attitudes in the school community. The philosophy of the Center, which is based on the theories of Rudolf Dreikurs, is described,…

Decentralized decision-making is an important characteristic of effective schools. Effective decentralization requires that teachers, parents, students, and the community be involved, despite the various problems they face. The creation of school improvement councils is one step towards implementing the massive structural change needed to improve…

This paper explores the implications of an effort to promote service learning in two middle schools in the Palo Alto (California) Unified School District. The schools are grades six through eight with about 1,000 students in each. The paper describes seven service efforts and then analyzes the costs and benefits of these projects. The study…

Designed to help parents and teachers think beyond the ordinary ways in which parent-family involvement in education is considered and approached, this book describes 34 operational parent-family involvement programs in preschools and in elementary, middle, and high schools. It also describes programs run by school districts and communities. Among…

Characterizes many civic councils (a combination parent-teacher organization and school board) as bureaucratic and unproductive. Profiles a council governing a Moscow suburban school that has been innovative and effective. Discusses the financial and administrative initiatives developed in conjunction with the school principal. (MJP)

This report describes the Alliance for Achievement project, a guide for constructing a school community that takes into account influences of the home on school performance. The project began in 1989 when 5 Illinois schools developed a plan to focus parental involvement on "the curriculum of the home" and integrate these efforts into a…