The 1978 contract negotiations between the teachers and the school board of Philadelphia were important enough to draw in four identified types of third party: government officials (notably the mayor), neutral mediators, community interest groups (representing political, financial, parental, and general public interests), and the news media. The…

The purpose of this research was to study a school district in a small American city to understand who controls school curriculum in the local community. The research approach used was reputational analysis, a survey method whereby the reputed influence of leaders is measured rather than taken for granted. Also used was a technique developed by…

This paper discusses a proposed term project for a course in documentary photography that centered on photographically documenting a rural community and measuring its symbolic sociodramas. The paper describes the focus of the project, which was to determine how various community groups interpreted a given set of photographs designed to express a…

This study used community contextual variables to investigate adolescent academic achievement, examining school districts and individual schools with 8th grade students. The first analyses were conducted for school year 1997-98. The school district model was replicated for 1996-97. Data came from the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau…

Toronto (Ontario, Canada) and Los Angeles (California) are two cities that provide television programs for specific ethnic groups. During a sample week, 13 percent of the total broadcast time of stations serving Greater Toronto was devoted to programs for ethnic groups. In another sample week, minority ethnic broadcasts took up 17 percent of the…

Based on a participant-observer's 14-month experience in the day care setting, this paper describes the curriculum implementation in an inner-city day care center--called "Banza" for purposes of this paper--in which both students and teachers come from working class or poor, African American, Caribbean, or Latino families. Through its…

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the context and process by which the Board adopted a policy, came to question that policy, and ultimately rescinded that policy, while maintaining legitimacy within its environment. In 1977, the Board of Directors of a large urban school district adopted a policy establishing successful…

To develop a new mission statement for Pima Community College (PCC) in Tucson, Arizona, a "charrette" process was utilized, in which detailed community input was solicited and incorporated as part of the mission statement development. Approximately 100 representatives of the greater Tucson community, together with PCC staff, developed…

The existence of Federal laws and policies supportive of educational equity for women was challenged with the election of President Reagan in 1980. The Reagan Administration's philosophy of providing block grants to States threatened to eliminate the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, both designed…

American Indian people have demonstrated their desire and need for responsive information service. It is fitting and appropriate that careful assessment, planning, implementation, and cooperation with other information agencies will enable the local reservation library to provide its community with the proper information, at the proper time, and…

This paper chronicles the experiences of nine adolescent girls who participated in a 3-year science, mathematics, and technology program for Appalachian girls. The girls lived in two West Virginia communities (one rural, one urban). Most of the girls were poor; six were African American. Descriptions of the girls' neighborhoods and local…

This paper describes a 1993-94 pilot program in Memphis (Tennessee) that was developed to increase the number of minority students prepared for, matriculating to, and graduating from postsecondary institutions. The communitywide partnership of institutions that implemented the program is described, along with the needs assessment commissioned by…

After an introductory section which points out that the responsibility of small and rural schools is to provide all children with a quality education, and that Boards of Education must decide what is best for all children in the community, the paper briefly describes 16 exemplary programs involving cooperation between school districts. The…

Designed to train Canadian Natives as professional educators and models for Native students in urban schools, the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP), initiated by the Association of Metis and Non-status Indians of Saskatchewan and offered by the Gabriel Dumont Institute, incorporates two basic objectives: to assist Native…