Supporting multilingual learners' access to equitable and socially just language education requires more from teachers than a critical stance and language awareness. Teachers of multilingual students must understand how their awareness and ideologies drive their actions and how their actions can generate new awareness both inside the classroom in…

Isolated teachers in stand-alone American schools are expected to engage diverse students in the quest to facilitate their academic learning and achievement. This strategy assumes that all students will come to school ready and able to learn, and educators in stand-alone schools can meet the needs of all students. Student disengagement gets short…

Our century has unprecedented new challenges, which need creative solutions and deep thinking. Contemplative, deep thinking became an "endangered species" in our rushing world of Tweets, elevator pitches, and fast decisions. Here, we describe how important aspects of both creativity and deep thinking can be understood as network…

Iin urban communities across the nation, a broad range of partners have committed to reinventing educational time together to ensure equitable access to rich learning opportunities for all young people. Across the nation, education partners are using their creativity, commitment, and unique resources to create new school and system designs that…

The election of Mayor Bill de Blasio in November 2013 was a historic moment for proponents of student-centered, equity-driven public education. During the campaign, de Blasio ran on an agenda of ending New York City's "Tale of Two Cities" and elevated a comprehensive vision for improving the city's more than 1,800 public schools as a…

New York City's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, represents a dramatic shift from his predecessor Michael Bloomberg in the area of education. Bloomberg was a national trendsetter on market reforms focused on privatization, testing, and competition. De Blasio was elected on an agenda of classroom investments, student supports, parent and community…

A change in political leadership typically signals a growth in organizing campaigns to find and endorse the candidate with ideas most similar to their own. However, what if instead of focusing on finding the best candidate, organizing groups decided to focus on the conversation? How would you then use an election to engage the members of the…

Research exploring the impact of social class on family and school relationships indicates that families with high levels of socioeconomic status (SES) possess resources that enable participation in traditionally accepted forms of family engagement (Henderson and Mapp, in, A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community…

Across the country, cities and regions have used community-wide partnerships to improve the educational attainment of their citizens. The most established of these partnerships have seen substantial education gains during their tenure. The community of Louisville, Kentucky has embarked on a similar effort to improve educational attainment. Nearly…

Discusses the importance of sustainable living and action and touches on the role of the church in environmental education and action at the community level. (LZ)

Describes an environmental action program taking place in the schools of five counties in Pennsylvania. The program deals with environmental problems on a practical level and offers technical and consultant assistance to schools and individual teachers. Specific action programs are described. (Author/IRT)

Claims that current environmental education curricula seem to have little effect on behavior. Proposes a service-oriented curriculum addressing the same information, but emphasizing application of the knowledge into action in the community. (KS)

In a coastal community, four social groups were chosen to participate in various educational programs designed to promote their desire to take environmental action. At the end of these educational programs, conducted by a scientist and an environmental educator, the participants were invited to get involved in the resolution of an environmental…

Participant/observation is useful as a tool for gathering evidence about processes, circumstances, or other observable conditions. A participant/observer is an investigator gathering evidence. Observations are carefully recorded, prejudgment is scorned, and judgments flow from the evidence. In approaching a situation to be investigated, the…

A group of staff and parents in a Pennsylvania community developed a district strategic plan stressing character education. The original study group found three reasons for involving schools, including schools' historical commitment to character development, recognition of values education as an intrinsic part of teaching, and increasing crime and…