This paper examines one key strategy for making school turnaround more effective: community engagement. To explore community engagement in action, the Reform Support Network (RSN) conducted studies between April and August of 2013 of 11 States and districts, urban and rural, engaged in the communities surrounding low-performing schools. The…

Today's truant officer is more often a counselor or a social worker than a "hooky cop" assigned to enforce compulsory attendance laws. Attempting to resolve the problems keeping kids out of school, many truant officers walk unsavory neighborhoods and find themselves immersed in heartbreaking stories or abusive situations. (MLH)

The author describes the Parent Advisory Council for Exceptional Children of Baltimore City, an urban center program designed to increase active parental participation through formal and informal training which emphasizes Black student/parent rights and due process. Parents participate in a 6 week intensive training program with activities…