This paper reports on a study that explored the roles of district and community-based education structures (DCES) in preparing, implementing, and communicating education policy initiatives at the district and school levels. A descriptive multiple-case survey design involving three purposefully selected districts was employed. The study used a…

The number of deaths caused by the use of heroin or prescription pain killers nationwide has increased annually over the past decade with some of the most rapid growth occurring in the nation's most rural areas. This qualitative study examines the responses of districts and superintendents to this growing health crisis in twelve rural school…

The COVID pandemic has led to a prolonged period of educational disruption with few precedents from the recent past to guide recovery. The Institute of Education's project, "Learning Through Disruption," set out to explore the knowledge schools have acquired from working with children and families during the crisis. The authors found…

The "Learning through Disruption" research project ran between May-August 2021, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. The project was based at UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and data collection began in May 2021, shortly after primary schools in England had emerged from the spring 2021 national lockdown, and were…

This case is written for graduate students in a superintendency seminar course, a school-community relations course, or a school leadership course, such as a school politics course. It presents a highly charged school referendum issue in a school district that is comprised of two distinctly different communities. An initial referendum to construct…

Local control of schooling has been considered a defining feature of the American school system; however, in the past several decades of public schooling has also increasingly been subject to the influence of extralocal institutional mandates that encourage curricular and organizational standardization. We conducted a content analysis of 480…

Often superintendents and boards of education employ an expert-based, school-centered, "decide and defend" decision making approach when dealing with critical school district issues. In the case presented here, involving what to do with an historic school building, it is an approach that did not yield the result the superintendent or board of…

School districts often find themselves in a double bind when dealing with the public: they seek public input, but also are vulnerable to manipulation by organized interest groups that are not representative of the entire community. The dilemma is how to procure the overall community's public judgment of a topic and allow widespread participation.…

Discusses experiences as Curriculum Supervisor for the Halifax County-Bedford School District in Nova Scotia, including curriculum development based on each school's community. (MS)

This paper reviews the literature and findings of a prior study (Dixon 1997) that described and categorized contrasting elements of different conceptions of democracy: liberal democracy, participatory democracy, and community democracy. A table in the appendix also presents this comparison. These contrasting conceptions of democracy were then used…

The rationale for conducting a community survey to obtain information on a specific problem or issue for local school board policy formation is illustrated in this case study. A survey mailed to 10 percent of all district households in a small midwestern city yielded a 31 percent response rate. Survey analysis was utilized by the school board to…

This book presents a report of public school-affiliated day care programs in 5 communities and a discussion of issues connected with public school involvement in day care. The programs described are: (1) Oakland Children's Centers, Oakland, California (preschool and after school care), (2) Extended Day Programs, Brookline, Massachusetts…

A study was done of the school reform and restructuring effort in the Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools specifically of the extent to which the legislative mandate for restructuring, new management, and constituent interests has been translated into educational policy and voter turnout in local school council elections. The study used data from a…

This monograph draws on case studies of school-community partnership projects in four rural southeastern school districts in order to elaborate a thorough description of school contextual factors in the rural Southeast. In 1986, Appalachia Educational Labaoratory (AEL), one of nine federally funded research and development laboratories, received…

One of a series designed to help school arts support groups increase public commitment to their programs, this monograph addresses the concerns of local school boards in instituting or maintaining arts education. Content is divided into 10 sections that cover rationale for arts education, local problems of budgeting and cutbacks, obtaining backing…