School choice is increasingly the new normal in urban education. But in cities with multiple public school options, how can civic leaders create a choice system that works for all families, whether they choose a charter or district public school? To answer this question, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) researchers surveyed 4,000…

This report expands on previous analyses to describe the skills needed to fill infrastructure occupations nationally. More than 14.5 million workers--or 11 percent of the entire U.S. workforce--are employed in infrastructure-related activities, many of which operate different physical assets and extend far beyond construction projects. In turn, a…

Citizenship is fundamentally defined by praxis--i.e., engagement in local and diverse forms of civic practices--rather than by a legal status tied to the nation-state (Tully, 2008). This study examined the participatory democracy practices of a community activist group that was organizing to resist gentrification in a Puerto Rican community in…

Reducing STDs and HIV/AIDS incidence requires campaigns designed to change knowledge, attitudes, and practices of risky sexual behavior. In China, a significant obstacle to such changes is the stigma associated with these diseases. Thus 1 campaign intervention strategy is to train credible community leaders to discuss these issues in everyday…

This exploratory qualitative study focused on 1) the learning needs of Aboriginal adult learners residing in selected First Nations communities in rural Alberta and 2) the potential for increasing access to e-learning education. Through open dialogue with First Nations community leaders, Aboriginal adult learners, and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal…

This article analyzes a group of Gambian-American college writers creating an alternative public to challenge the patronizing norms operating in prevailing "aid-to-Africa" rhetorics. These young rhetors evoked performative genres and hybrid discourses so that members of their local public (the African nationals, African American…

Policymakers are increasingly turning to expanded learning time (ELT) as a strategy for improving student achievement. This trend is impacting community-based organizations' (CBOs) work in schools, pushing them to focus more on academics and engage with schools in new ways. Most notably, grantees of the federal 21st Century Community Learning…

The main focus of recent research on the community engagement role of universities has been in developed countries, generally in towns and cities and usually conducted from the perspective of universities rather than the communities with which they engage. The purpose of this article is to investigate the community engagement role of universities…

This case explores the first two years of the Lorreltag Partnership Initiative (LPI), an urban, community-5 school-university partnership. It provides a history of the community and elucidates key factors influencing partnership development. The case relies on the perspectives of a community leader, a university faculty member, a new principal,…

At the conclusion of the 2007-08 academic year, the City of Keene and Keene State College (KSC) began to celebrate the college's 100th anniversary. Keene is the 23,000-person hub of a 70,000-person county in southwestern New Hampshire. The history of a supportive town-gown relationship began prior to the college's founding in 1909. The city had…

This article illustrates the culture consciousness of Hmong immigrant community leaders as they made sense of the educational experiences of Hmong American children and families. It draws on the work of scholars who have theorized "critical" essentialism to suggest that Hmong leaders are critically aware of the role and import of…

Smoking bans offer practical protection against environmental tobacco smoke and highlight the decreasing normative status of smoking. At Canadian universities, indoor smoking is now completely prohibited, but regulations vary with respect to outdoor smoking. The purpose of this research was to conceptualize the interactions of smoking bans on…

Several land-grant institutions have adopted a name to encompass the teaching, research, and Extension components of the university, creating a brand identity for those public services. But, in the mind of stakeholders, has the connection between the tripartite mission and the brand name been made? The study reported here sought to determine…

The move to "internationalize" United States universities has contributed to increased interest in global service-learning. This article presents qualitative data collected by a team of faculty and students during a service immersion in Nicaragua. The solidarity model of service-learning attempts to address shortcomings of earlier…

This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from the…