The Downtown Education Collaborative (DEC) is an innovative collaborative which includes public and private colleges working with community organizations in interdisciplinary community service learning. This article reviews DEC's development, from its inception as a shared vision aspired to by its partners, to a functioning collaborative. We…

The work of school, family and community partnerships is complex and messy and demands a thoughtful and deep investigation. Currently, parent and community involvement does not draw on school reform and educational change literature and conversely the school change literature often ignores the crucial role that communities play in educational…

This research report examines the Baby TALK model, an innovative early childhood intervention approach used to identify, recruit, and serve young children who are at-risk for developmental delays, mental health needs, and/or school failure, and their families. The report begins with a description of the model. This description is followed by an…

Chilean educator and poet Gabriela Mistral warned that children's needs are immediate and comprise more than just academic concerns. Implementing comprehensive community schools is an increasingly successful approach to taking her warning to heart, particularly in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. The reason is simple: education does…

In this article, the authors share a project developed and implemented in an eighth-grade science classroom in which students apply what they have learned about biomes to create sustainable cities. This project promotes environmental literacy through helping students understand the interrelated elements of sustainable environmental systems and how…

Latent growth curve modeling was used to describe longitudinal trends in community and religious involvement and Marcia's (1966) four identity statuses (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement), as well as to assess relations between involvement and identity change. Cross-lagged regression models explored temporal ordering of relations…

This article presents a holistic approach to understanding the activities that constitute faculty engagement. After setting an historical context for the public service roles of faculty, the authors define specific activities involving service-learning, community-based research, and certain forms of professional service as the most relevant to…

The present project analysed the use of participatory models during the process of application of a prevention program with preschool-aged children in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Relevant phases in achieving community collaboration are delineated and challenges are discussed. Results indicate that participatory models provided an effective means of…

Inner-city schools located in high poverty communities often operate with insufficient resources to meet the educational needs of students. Community residents serving as paraeducators offer the dual benefits of expanding instructional capacity and fostering family-school relationships, provided they are appropriately prepared and incorporated…

This dissertation offers a critique of current approaches to postsecondary vocational education. It concludes that the traditional apprenticeship and didactic model leads to inadequate preparation of students for independent thinking and problem solving. An alternative model is proposed that uses "democratic education" principles. These include…

This article presents the unique approach to university-community partnerships developed and practiced at Michigan State University (MSU). We have established a model of campus-community partnerships that builds a wide-reaching system of networks connecting the university to communities. Our approach is "developmental",…

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (www.usdoj.gov), Community Policing is defined as: "The focus on crime and social disorder through the delivery of police services that includes aspects of traditional law enforcement, as well as prevention, problem-solving, community engagement, and partnerships. The community policing model balances…

This article is drawn from a qualitative study of the role that school building leaders play in building parent and community involvement in their schools. The article focuses on four of the principals involved in the study who--with their students, staff, parents, and community members--developed inclusive, meaningful, and transformative…

The authors support role changes for educational practitioners who work with children and youth with disabilities as they make important transitions. Principles from critical pedagogy and disability studies are summarized to provide a new theoretical framework to support role changes. Rather than needs-based services that focus on helping those…

Establishing rapport between researcher and participants when conducting ethnography is essential to the successful outcome of the research. However, when participants are unwilling to engage, a different approach must be adopted. This article is an examination of the appropriation of a situated learning model during fieldwork with a group of…