Raymond J. Young (1923-2007) played a key role in the post-World War II development of community colleges in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and elsewhere. This article describes his scholarly and professional contributions in developing "bottom-up," grassroots citizen's participatory studies that led to the establishment of 60 community…

This field study reports on a cross-site evaluation of dependency courts in communities receiving federal funding to implement the "Greenbook" initiative, a multisite demonstration for community improvement of coordinated responses to families victimized by domestic violence and child maltreatment. This article focuses on the dependency court,…

In order to fully evaluate the quality of evidence for any educational innovation, research is needed regarding consistency with theory, demonstrated effectiveness, and consistent implementation. The Help One Student to Succeed (HOSTS) Language Arts program was specifically mentioned in the "No Child Left Behind" act as a program that…

This article raises the question, "Is the rapid expansion of the school Academies programme consistent with the Government's policy of enabling socially disadvantaged local communities to participate in making decisions that shape the quality of their lives?" (Contains 1 note.)

Expanding the sources of leadership in schools has been a reform theme since the mid 1980s. Using exploratory factor analysis and regression, we examine the following questions: (1) How does leadership style affect principals' openness to community involvement? (2) Is a principal's openness to community involvement related to student achievement?…

Federal policies of parental involvement and community participation continue to be more rhetorical than meaningful; more theoretical than practical; an afterthought rather than a forethought; and they take a back seat to the more bureaucratic and technical elements of public education change and reform, especially testing and assessment. This…

The central concern of this article is to advocate an inclusive and pluralistic notion of a public sphere similar to those advocated by feminist writers such as Iris Marion Young and Nancy Fraser. These ideas complement the plethora of initiatives from statutory and voluntary agencies to take on board the participation and voices of children and…

Many rural communities are experiencing a diversity of issues, but what part does leadership play in these communities? This qualitative study describes the environment within two communities in the southeast focusing on community variables of psychological sense of community, community leadership, and social capital. Leaders were identified and a…

Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) is a summer employment, academic remediation, and life skills program intended to lower school dropout rates by reducing summer learning loss and preventing teen parenthood. The program is integrated into the federal summer jobs program and is offered during six-to-eight-week sessions in two consecutive…

The Step by Step Program was designed to introduce child-centered teaching strategies and parent and community involvement in early childhood education systems in countries of the former Soviet bloc, where rapid social, economic, and political transformations were taking place. This study assessed the program's capacity, reach, and sustainability.…

This article offers strategies teachers can use throughout the year to help families of children with and without disabilities, and by extension the broader community, understand and appreciate inclusive education and their roles in ensuring its success. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study examines engagement, meaning, and hedonism as three orientations to happiness and their relationship to the educational variables of motivation, extracurricular involvement, community involvement, and clarity of career plans. Engagement significantly contributed to the variance of extracurricular activities and community involvement.…

Performance-making and peace-building are processes predicated on the production of safe space. But what is "safe space"? In performance-making, what is it that makes space safe without losing the creative potential of tension? What role is there for risk? And, once achieved, how does safe space become meaningful beyond its immediate…

During the past two decades, colleges and universities have used best practices from corporate management such as total quality management, strategic planning, management by objectives, benchmarking, data warehousing, and performance indicators. Many institutions of higher learning now have adopted comprehensive and multifaceted approaches to…

The current study replicates work of Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Northeast and Islands. It describes dropout prevention programs in nine Mid-Atlantic Region (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) school districts serving communities with populations of 24,742-107,250 (as of July 2008). All nine…