The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

Describes Project HELP, an innovative community self-help program in Nashville, Tennessee which was developed in response to the inability of certain populations to pay their utility bills, and which is staffed primarily with volunteers and funded exclusively through contributions. Reports on the program's first five years of operation, and…

As knowledge of effective treatments for mental disorders has grown, so too has the field of mental health promotion and positive development. Studies completed during the last two decades have synthesized the state of mental health promotion and documented that universal mental health supports positively affect child and adolescent developmental…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act calls for partnerships across local, state, and federal levels. This document offers suggestions for community organization to achieve the national education goals. The first section includes information on forming a steering committee, creating task forces, avoiding turf battles and finger pointing, defining…

The Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) of 1972 authorizes grants or contracts to nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to support the LEAs' efforts to desegregate or to reduce minority group isolation or its effects. The NPO program is a small component of ESAA which provides financial assistance to community…

In 1977 a group of urban American Indian organizations got together to protest the leveling of rental housing for urban renewal; then they learned that a community college was going up to replace that housing, right in the middle of the Indian community. Realizing the opportunities for jobs, education, and training, the community leaders decided…

This paper describes the Elder Program, a 3 year Model Demonstration Program designed to strengthen neighborhood support systems for older persons through an educational program emphasizing information, resources, and skill development. A discussion of basic assumptions and the theoretical background of the model focuses on the principles of…

As increased attention is placed on the role of schools in the development of character, community service/service learning, the concept of providing instrution through the study of community issues, action to address them, and reflection on the experience, can help meet school and community goals. Through community service/service learning,…

This digest summarizes the underlying structure, concepts, and ideology of the Project NEXUS manual, "A Community Approach to an Integrated Service System" (CAISS). Project NEXUS is a 3-year project charged with the development and field-testing of a technical assistance manual to aid communities in the development and/or improvement of…

A Local Education Fund (LEF) is a third-party, nonprofit entity whose agenda, at least in part, consists of developing supportive community and private sector relationships with a public school system. It provides limited private sector support to launch initiatives and broker relationships leading toward school improvement. LEFs are funded and…

As we move through the 21st century, the need to prepare professionals to work effectively with students from diverse backgrounds is of utmost importance. This paper discusses the use of service-learning in a pre-service preparation program at a metropolitan university. Service-learning was infused into a course examining issues and trends in…

A collaborative parent-community-school (PCS) model facilitates the involvement of disadvantaged and minority parents, community leaders, and community organizations in educational improvement activities, with a focus on at-risk children and youth in high-risk communities. PCS has a more comprehensive agenda than parent participation, and…

The increasing institutionalization of teaching has been a central aspect of educational developments in education in Norway because important teaching functions, previously preserved informally in the home and in the local community, have been gradually replaced by formal education. The school-community network has been weakened because few…

These Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) state action plans were initially developed in 1998 for the central regional states, which include Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They detail the states' specific technical assistance needs, as well as the services to be provided by Mid-Continent…

In today's wars, children are on the front lines. This handbook, the result of a meeting of psychologists and humanitarian workers, presents a strategy to meet the needs of children in war and refugee crises that intends to be cost-effective, empowering, and child-focused. The strategy emerged from field work based on the belief that each…