Community, collaboration, and relationships have become more important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the country, school districts have embraced this opportunity to rethink how to engage with families and the surrounding community. With strong leadership that treats families, caregivers, and community organizations as full and…

Competency education, an educator-led reform, is taking root in schools and districts across the country. In some states, state leadership has cleared the path with policies to advance competency education. This paper seeks to map out the terrain of the district implementation strategies being used to convert traditional systems into personalized,…

Described the development of the Communiversity, a school designed to fulfill the post-secondary needs of the community through a systematic process of identifying a school curriculum by finding the needs of the community and placing them in some hierarchy of priorities. (Author/RK)

Georgia's Needs Assessment Package, which has many sample forms, includes a procedure which helps to identify short-range and long-range educational needs. This procedure utilizes community participation which broadens the decision-making base and serves to legitimatize actual decisions. It utilizes the opinions of professional educators,…

Attempts to formulate basic criteria for assessing educational proposals which offer alternatives to the regular and traditional secondary school programs. (Author/RK)

The inclusion of more sociology related materials in the 8th and 9th grade civics curriculum can push the margins of civics education to a more broadly conceived notion of citizenry and make civics and sociology more relevant to students' lives. The goal should be to help students understand society, not the discipline of sociology. Sociology…

The purpose of this Personalized Activity Kit is basically threefold. When the participant has performed the steps presented, he will have three products: (1) an improved statement of school goals, (2) a priority list of validated needs, and (3) an operational philosophy. Several steps are involved in developing each of these products,…

Thirteen junior college authorities participated in a series of lectures presented at Santa Fe Junior College (Florida) during the 1969-70 academic year. The topic, "What is the major challenge facing America's junior colleges in the 1970's" evoked responses very different in emphasis and detail, but similar in theme. The discussions…

This planner aims to assist program directors in establishing or enhancing secondary education programs for migrant students. A chart format enables review of essential elements of successful programs and facilitates discussion and planning of each element. The charts identify the task, the person responsible for accomplishing the task, the…

This report describes the California State program for increased citizen participation in decisionmaking. Volume 1 discusses (1) the goals and objectives for authentic learning; (2) the process for determining school goals, objectives, and priorities; (3) the methods for meeting the needs of students; and (4) the principles of school community…

The concept of needs and educational assessment is a blending of community participation and evaluation. There are four primary steps in this concept: goal definition, program assessment, needs identification, and decision making. This document offers a guideline model aimed at a simple, economical method of needs and educational assessment. It…

The setting of priorities among educational objectives is just as critical, and at least as difficult, as the selection of objectives. Information that is commonly used to make decisions about priorities involves: the needs of persons who will benefit from the school program; the resources available; and the knowledge of what payoffs are likely…

This Personalized Activity Kit presents an overview of the steps in a student needs identification procedure. These steps will be more fully explained in a subsequent publication in this series. Student needs assessment focuses on refining goal statements and on the development of a set of valid priority needs. The concerns-analysis approach is…

This Personalized Activity Kit describes various ways to gather school/community concerns--questionnaires, student speak-outs, community concerns conferences, and interviews. A variety of methods should be used in gathering concerns. Concerns gathering usually begins with an identification of current district goals. From the list of goals, a…

This report lists the major conclusions of 28 publications prepared by PROJECT DESIGN, funded under ESEA Title III, to assess the dimensions of educational needs in Fresno, California. Following the presentation of conclusions by source, specific conclusions are arranged and listed by topic in the following categories: (1) objectives, planning,…