Eastern Michigan University is in the second year of a pilot program designed to promote law-related education and partnerships between the university and local communities. The collaborators in the project are the university, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, and the Taylor (Michigan) Public Schools. The goal of the project is to develop…

A middle school social studies teacher developed a community service program to help his students learn by doing and relate to the real world and its problems. Students chose issues of concern to them and performed services in those realms to benefit the community (including studying about and eliminating graffiti). (SM)

Credit alternatives allow local school systems to take advantage of community learning resources as an enrichment for, or supplement to, school learning experiences. The first part of this handbook describes credit alternatives that may be used by local school systems to provide individualized curricula for diagnostic and prescriptive instruction.…

This paper introduces the medium of cultural journalism as an effective means of intensified basic communication training and community involvement. Part one contains a report of a needs assessment and a subsequent pilot project on cultural journalism that was conducted at an Oklahoma high school. The needs assessment also reports on similar…

This book provides descriptions of youth involvement projects that have made significant contributions to young people, their schools, and their communities. Each description is intended to provide information for starting and operating similar youth projects. They explain how a particular project began, mention the important problems encountered,…

A study examined 64 eighth-grade students' perceptions of opportunities available from participating in service learning and contrasted these with perceived learning opportunities available in school. Each student was enrolled in a 10-week required service learning course. Students visited service sites daily and had reflection periods two times…

Presents four brief essays expressing the importance of combining service learning and citizenship education. Authors Benjamin Barber, Joan Schine, Harry C. Boyte, and James C. Kielsmeier stress the advantages of learning democratic concepts and principles, as well as understanding civic government, through student participation. (MJP)

Provides 11 guideposts for teachers and students planning constructive community action projects. These include avoid overanalysis at the beginning, write your original idea down before you modify it, ignore negativity, do your homework, build a core group, and recruit community allies. (MJP)

Presents information and materials for conducting a student forum on crime and community schools. Provides instructions for students and teachers. Includes student roles and a community questionnaire designed to be completed and sent to the American Bar Association. (CFR)

This paper outlines a Community-based Participatory Action Research model designed and implemented by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education with two community-based agencies in Milwaukee. In two participatory action learning seminars, research was combined with action to improve the educational experience of…

Historically, land-grant university research stations focused on demonstrating successful farming methods. The land-grant mission and the principles at its foundation have broad applicability, and we believe the land-grant principles can be successfully applied in urban settings to a university's work with youth and families. In this article we…

Describes a middle school curriculum that integrates service learning and civic responsibility skills into the core academic program. The "CityYouth" curriculum consists of 32 multidisciplinary lessons divided into four units of eight lessons each. Examines how schools have incorporated the units into community activities. (MJP)

El Paso Community College (Texas), a task force school in the Cooperative Assessment of Experiential Learning project, is experimenting with a sponsored experiential learning system. An important requisite for a valid sponsored experiential learning program is an articulation agreement between El Paso Community based agencies and the college. The…

This review surveys documents and journal articles previously announced in RIE, ERIC's monthly abstract catalogs, dealing with the growth of community schools. The community school is perceived to be the vehicle for the larger concept of community education -- a philosophy of education and society that radically changes the role of the public…

This idea-generating description of a successful class project tells how second grade students, through viewing a film on ecology were motivated toward involving teachers, schools, parents and community in a cooperative effort to collect used paper for recycling. Objectives of the project were to: 1) enable students to identify environmental…