School improvement plans (SIPs) have become a central feature of schooling. Educational leaders experience tension between balancing compliance with accountability demands and continuous improvement, and neither of these lenses is centered in the social justice necessary for closing opportunity gaps. We propose a new rubric for assessing the…

This article reveals the nature of actions, discussions and relationships which helped forge school-community partnerships for engaged student learning and wider community participation for students and families living under difficult socio-economic circumstances. Specifically, the article draws upon interviews with key personnel and staff…

This author states that, since the civil rights movement, Americans have documented and decried--but done little to decrease--the achievement gap. This gulf, one of many that divide people by race and class, has festered in part because the larger question of inequitable investment in poor communities of color has long been neglected.…

The challenges of poverty and development have long been regarded in terms of transitive relationships, in which the rich help the poor because the poor are not seen as able to help themselves. This view of the poor assumes they have mainly needs and no assets. With so many people believing this view it isn't surprising that the poor themselves…

This article describes a broader, bolder approach to education reform aimed at addressing the social and economic disadvantages that hinder student achievement. Central principles of this approach to reform include the provision of supports such as early childhood and preschool programs, after-school and summer enrichment programs, parent…

The concept of Self-managing schools involving local community members, teachers and parents with the formation of School Management Committee is gaining ground in Nepal after the world conference on education for all (WCEFA) held in Jomtien, Thailand in the year 1990. Transferring the management of public schools in the hand of willing community…

The present trend in writings on school has shifted womewhat from the documentation of educational inadequacies and inequities and suggestions for their reform, to analyses of the role schooling plays in out society generally. While the efforts of educationally disenfranchised communities to achieve some influence and control over the schooling of…

Since 1994, the National Science Foundation has funded Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSI), a set of systemic reforms to enhance math, science, and technology education in economically disadvantaged, rural areas through instructional and policy reform and community development activities. As part of an evaluation of the program, surveys were sent to…

This report on educational reform shows how three dynamic but quite different organizations are currently attempting to secure quality education for urban disadvantaged children. Aspira of New York, Philadelphia Welfare Rights Organization, and Harlem Parents Union are three self-help groups that seek quality education for poor children but differ…

Explores mentoring, and examines the gap between claims advanced for mentoring and actual experience. Mentoring at the present often suffers from fervor without infrastructure. Principles are given for building supportive infrastructure and creating environments rich in mentors that relieve a single person from the weight of super-mentoring. (SLD)

Although facilitating community participation in disadvantaged schools can be difficult, this article argues that, given the structuring of schooling in contemporary western democracies, it is even more difficult than we might imagine. Drawing on Bourdieu, we attempt to elucidate the complex relations between schooling and socio-cultural contexts…

This practicum report presents a detailed account of a project by an elementary school principal in designing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive improvement program to alleviate problems which have occurred as a result of the transitional state of the neighborhood at the Clara Barton Public School, in the school district of…

A case study of an economically distressed rural Kentucky school district examined the theory that educational policy can enable community participation and that participation can enable policy implementation by affecting school governance and expanding the services provided. Primary data were gathered via interviews with four parent participants,…

The difficulties of school restructuring are demonstrated in a three-year evaluation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's five-year New Futures Initiative. New Futures attempts to improve the life chances of disadvantaged youth by promoting change in schools and other youth-serving agencies in four cities. (SLD)

Local educational reform efforts involving school systems, higher education, and the community must address educational pipelines through college and systemic deterrents like health, stress, and violence. A sense of moral imperative will bind collaborators in a new spirit of cohesiveness and community. Educational reform efforts in Birmingham…