This study was a narrative inquiry that investigated middle school students' experiences with an informal writing group. The six primary participants were members of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMO). During the month of November, each of the primary participants set a word count goal and composed a novel. Participants met together at group…

Go-along interviews, which are interviews conducted while being in and moving within participant selected spaces, were conducted with 66 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adolescents (14-19 years old) in their self-identified communities to explore perceived community attributes, including safe spaces, resources, and supports; this…

In recent reform efforts, school-community partnerships have been touted as a means for promoting student success (Decker, Decker, & Brown 2007; Epstein 2010) and meeting student needs (Hands 2010). Yet, despite any accolades, the motives and results of school-community partnerships are contested. Gary Anderson (1998) points out that…

Experimental efforts to carry out a program of neighborhood one-to-one volunteer activity by urban low-income black elderly were unsuccessful. An alternate program of volunteering for group activities emerged. Environmental perils, limited professional supports, and volunteer characteristics were seen as accounting for the changed focus. (Author)

This column, the last in a series of articles dealing with partnerships in educating young children, focuses on partnerships developed with communities. Examples of the importance of community partnerships--including provision of comprehensive services to meet student interests--welfare reform issues, and the need to be politically active are…

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)

Between the summer of 1968 and May 1969, 30 community controlled school projects were studied. Observations of community school curricula, community involvement and integration, and the like are summarized. Strategies for control are grouped under the same three structures utilized in the three chapters of project profiles: public school…

This booklet offers a set of guidelines for developing a community-based coalition dedicated to improving the education of at-risk minority students. The guide offers and is organized around the following nine-step plan for the development and implementation of strategies to mobilize a community: (1) "the initiation: build core support"; (2)…

ASCILOS, an acronym for a symbiotic community in the land of the Sioux, is a new land settlement pattern designed by the Center for Community Organization and Area Development (CENCOAD), sponsored by Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. ASCILOS covers a 60-mile radius around Sioux Falls. ASCILOS, based on symbiosis in nature, assumes that…

The Institute for Responsive Education (IRE) is a private, nonprofit organization involved in research, policy analysis, assistance to local sites, and development of a national information clearinghouse and network for citizen groups. IRE recommends an approach to community based education that encourages citizen participation in decision-making…

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…