This article focuses on the Lawrence Adult Learning Center, the only program in Kansas offering Adult Basic Education. The LALC has been a program on wheels, always moving to another location. Its mission is to enable adult students to: acquire appropriate skills and knowledge necessary to become informed decision makers and effective…

Recent concern about the quality and supply of teachers in mathematics and science has prompted a rethinking of how teachers in these content areas are recruited and prepared. This article describes a project, funded by the National Science Foundation and undertaken by Phi Theta Kappa, to strengthen the mathematics, science, and technology…

This report describes how Miami Dade College (MDC) has begun to develop a systematic and data-informed method for assessing and improving student outcomes across its large eight-campus college. Told from the point of view of MDC's Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the report recounts how the college has responded to the problem of poor…

In 1997, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio established the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) for the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. Through medical education programs, research facilities, and partnerships with health-care providers, the RAHC aims to improve the health status and access to health services…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are largely built on the assumption that learning is an individual process best encouraged by explicit teaching that is, on the whole, separated from social engagement with those outside the university community. This perspective has been theoretically challenged by those who argue for a social constructivist…

This paper describes the signature role played by accomplished, experienced teachers in professional learning communities, and the importance that these practitioners make their teaching public and shared. In so doing, the authors describe how accomplished practices can be shared between classrooms and between practitioners with varying levels of…

This book reports on a study of rural community development policies and practices in the United States, Europe, and Canada in relation to multicommunity collaboration as a rural restructuring strategy. The study focused on multicommunity collaboration involving two or more small rural communities working together to attain social or economic…

In response to diminishing resources, Kirkwood Community College (KCC), in Iowa, has made efforts to develop partnerships with public and private agencies to provide organizational and financial support. This report reviews the development of partnerships at KCC and highlights specific agreements. The first part reviews the history of partnership…

EMPIRE (Exemplary Multicultural Practices in Rural Schools) is a collaborative multicultural reform project involving the Rural Clearinghouse at Kansas State University and eight rural schools, two regional colleges, and state departments of education in Arizona and Washington. Each rural school is pursuing multicultural projects that are defined…

This collection describes over 340 projects in which the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) has played a role in the past two years. The CURA offers a program of research and outreach on urban problems, which brings the resources of the university to bear on the problems of urban communities.…

In 1997, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families launched the Frontiers of Research on Children, Youth, and Families Initiative to highlight recent policy-relevant research on children, youth, and families conducted by young and mid-career researchers. The initiative sought to encourage more sustained interactions between these researchers and…

In 1988, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges (CCC) established an Economic Development Program (EDP) to support community colleges' efforts to provide education, training, and technical services to business and industry. The EDP's mission was to establish model programs, demonstration projects, and college/business…

This paper discusses the "School of the Twenty-First Century" concept and its implementation in three schools in Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The "School of the Twenty-First Century" idea was first promulgated in 1987, by Edward Zigler of the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University. The…

Summer Adventure, a university-based, full-day, community education program for kindergartners and elementary students is described. The program offers physical and enrichment activities, an "extravaganza," and production and leadership in training activities. The physical activities include golf, swimming, volleyball, and gymnastics. Fitness…

Collaborations between urban schools and businesses, community agencies, cultural institutions, and universities have become a popular way to improve public education. Motives for collaborating include the following: (1) schools with a largely disadvantaged population need powerful, vocal support groups; (2) businesses need a highly educated and…