Presents the Yoruba Naming Ceremony as an activity for a global-studies class that provides an introduction to Nigerian culture. Explains that the ceremony is the time that the family and community welcomes a new child. Gives a list of Yoruba names and discussion questions for classroom use. (CMK)

Academic fieldworkers in language-endangered communities must be able to undertake all aspects of linguistic work, elicit linguistic information from speakers, document naturally occurring speech data, present research results in a comprehensible manner to the community and to academia, and develop cooperative programs based on mutual trust.…

The O'odham Nation is developing an O'odham dictionary in collaboration with the University of Arizona. The project is unique because it is conducted by tribal members and funded by the tribe. The group is proposing locating language centers throughout the reservation to mobilize community involvement in the project and to assist the Nation's…

To successfully maintain endangered Native American languages, Native communities must collectively recognize their language's vulnerability and commit to its continuity. Linguists need more experience with fieldwork and pragmatics, knowledge of various language transmission practices in cultures other than their own, an understanding of cultural…

Thumbnail sketches of four schools in Edmonds School District (Washington) illustrate ways they have built strong parent and community relationships: parent volunteers in a parent-cooperative school; a family-oriented neighborhood school; a school offering school-based health and social services; and a Cyberschool that provides resources to…

The Road to Readiness component of the Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning focused on individual, family, and community supports and obstacles to school readiness. Several projects of the initiative are described, focusing on a chart developed to help parents encourage a child's early speech. (SLD)

School leaders are expected to transcend the confines of conventional instruction and implement effective measures to serve the growing population of language-minority students. Understanding students' backgrounds and needs for belonging, health care, and educational success is essential. Strategies for learning, avoiding stereotypes, and…

Profiles three exemplary school districts that reformed and enriched education through technology. Township High School District 214 (Arlington Heights, Illinois), Washington County Schools (Plymouth, North Carolina), and Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools (Clarksville, Tennessee) demonstrated commitment to student learning and staff…

Used alone, mandated standards and tests provide a dangerously narrow approach to accountability. Superintendents' proper response is layering and realignment-working to improve standards' validity and contribution to school improvement. Superintendents should provide leadership that increases schools' adaptability and spurs environmental changes.…

Low achievement of state mathematics standards caused a rural Illinois school district to realize that repeated coverage of lower-level material blocked student progress. Subsequently, elementary teachers learned new ways to teach math, and secondary teachers replaced practical math with algebra courses. Students achieved new levels of math…

Although facilitating community participation in disadvantaged schools can be difficult, this article argues that, given the structuring of schooling in contemporary western democracies, it is even more difficult than we might imagine. Drawing on Bourdieu, we attempt to elucidate the complex relations between schooling and socio-cultural contexts…

This case study reports the feasibility of the Partnership Schools Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model for school improvement in a Title I elementary school. Interviews were conducted and documents were collected for 3 years to study whether and how the school implemented key policy attributes--specificity, consistency, authority, power, and…

We examine the issues involved in creating and maintaining a successful collaboration between university-based researchers and community members when designing and implementing the Parents Matter! Program (PMP). The roles of focus groups, community advisory boards, and community liaisons are highlighted. PMP provides an illustration of the ongoing…

This article discusses the idea of the "safe school" juvenile delinquency prevention model as a paradigm of bringing together all of the community participants, in order to bring about ways and means through which community problems could be met and solved. It suggests that in free and democratic societies, the consent of all participant…

S. Redding noted the many challenges facing research and researchers in family-school-community involvement, and he presented a call to "rally the troops" to respond to a series of concerns. The issue of control over defining the role of schools should be a shared enterprise among the family, the school, and the community, with the individual…