Examines the issue of community involvement in reformulating educational systems. Historical perspectives on community involvement in schools are reviewed; the roles of community members in educational settings and in educational systems design settings are discussed; and experiences from fieldwork observing community participation are related.…

The Murfreesboro, Tennessee, City Schools have doubled the amount of time schools are open without raising taxes. Instead of going home to empty houses, kids participate in an extended school program offering over 100 courses in recreation, academics, arts, and life skills. Parents and organizations foot the costs; no child is excluded for…

Consumer educators can help students develop consumer/citizen roles through curricula linking consumer rights with citizen responsibilities. Dialogue about issues, community needs assessment, and community volunteer service enable students to practice citizen roles. (SK)

Creates a scenario illustrating how schools might be 10 years from now if present reforms were deepened and accelerated. Projections stress the importance of creating a vision, developing guiding principles for educating all students, and transforming learning, teaching, school organization, governance, teacher unions, and the community to achieve…

Superintendent John Murphy's plan to transform the Charlotte, North Carolina, schools hinged on empowering a panel of 10 distinguished educators to identify the elements of a world-class school system. The larger community contributed by attending separate day-long forums for principals and teachers, parents and concerned citizens, business and…

Presents advantages of African-American Male Academies as an intervention for at-risk African-American male students. African-American Male Academies (1) advocate excellence; (2) exhibit African-American leadership; (3) provide a multicultural curricula; (4) foster positive self-concepts; (5) encourage parent involvement; (6) foster academic…

Describes the benefits of community service to students and to participating social agencies. Considers how one teacher instituted service into a composition course. Discusses topics covered in the course, including equal opportunity and discrimination in education against the poor. (HB)

Focusing on Hawaii over the past 150 years, examines who controlled the educational policy process and what values were pursued in resultant school policies. Political culture has continued to reflect limited citizen involvement while fostering the pursuit of efficiency. Understanding how a state's political culture has developed temporally may be…

Growing up in a highly eroticized environment, children are preoccupied with sex in developmentally distorted ways and increasingly likely to act out their sexual impulses. Abstinence is the only totally effective way to avoid pregnancy, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Chastity education promises great success through promotion of…

Interviews Willie Simmons, Mississippi State Senator and former Head Start parent. Simmons discusses his involvement with Head Start and the benefits of that association; encourages parents to become involved in their schools, communities, and local governments to bring about change; and discusses his entry into politics and the goals for his term…

The traditional home-school partnership was a communitywide, adult conspiracy to raise good, responsible children. Because of massive social and economic changes, parents and school personnel no longer necessarily share neighborhoods, economic status, language, culture, or child-rearing viewpoints. A new, mutually respectful, and enjoyable "dance"…

Reports the results of 23 referenda on funding public library capital campaigns. The location of each referendum, the pass/fail rate by season, and data summarizing referenda over the past six years are provided. Two sidebars cover the failed referendum in Westerville (Ohio) and the successful referendum in Saratoga Springs (New York). (KRN)

Describes a week-long, cross-curriculum project focused on the decade of the 1940s that was conducted at the Vandalia (Illinois) junior high school. Project goals, activities appropriate to each of the disciplines, lists of 1940s personalities, trends and events used to design lessons, and involvement of the wider community are covered. (eight…

Describes a personal experience in the effort to avoid widespread herbicide spraying. Provides insights for building a successful campaign: involvement, finding support, acceptance of differences of opinion, autonomy from political factions, and not assuming people are closed to healthier alternatives. (MCO)

Discusses collaboration between the Research and Development Center and the Institute for Responsive Education and its national reform project called the League of Schools Reaching Out. League seeks to show how school-family-community partnerships can contribute significantly to school restructuring or reform aimed at increasing all children's…