In Fall 2016, the Families as Partners Initiative, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, hosted its first parent camp for families of five schools in North Austin. This report describes the camp activities and summarizes the feedback parents provided about their experience.

The high school dropout rate has become a critical issue nationwide. Research points to the high school transition as a stressful experience for students and identifies it as a potential contributor to the elevated dropout rate. Using the stage-environment fit theory as a framework (Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles et al., 1993), this research…

"Improving Education Together" offers a step-by-step guide to Labor-Management-Community (LMC) collaboration, an intervention that has successfully improved student outcomes in a wide variety of school districts across the country. The authors illustrate how a culture of collaboration between labor, management, and community stakeholders…

"Improving Education Together" offers a step-by-step guide to Labor-Management-Community (LMC) collaboration, an intervention that has successfully improved student outcomes in a wide variety of school districts across the country. The authors illustrate how a culture of collaboration between labor, management, and community stakeholders…

This case study depicted the development and implementation of the Holistic Undergraduate Growth Experience (HUGE) student success and retention program that spans the second year of undergraduate study to graduation. This study set out to expand student development theory and practice to include an international perspective, specifically one from…

The recent awarding of a Promise Neighborhood Planning Grant to Rutgers University-Newark demonstrates how the institution's leadership has promoted a vision and mission that fosters an institutional climate supportive of community engagement. This paper discusses how Gray's (1989) partnership development framework and Kania and Kramer's (2011)…

Metropolitan universities in the United States are driven by the intertwined missions of broadening educational access and serving their surrounding communities. International education historically has been placed somewhat apart from such missions. This separation has little justification in these globalized times, however--a realization that…

The presence of urban Indian communities and American Indian tribal nations in and near metropolitan areas creates tremendous potential for expanding campus-community collaborations regarding teaching, research, and service. However, many challenges must be addressed, including acknowledging the colonial context of relations between indigenous and…

Disability Critical Race Theory (Dis/Crit) was useful as a tool and a lens for the development of a collaborative network of educators, community providers, and community stakeholders including educators, community members, parents, and individuals. Initially I engaged these stakeholders in action research sessions to inform planning for…

This paper explores the re-envisioning of a school of social work into a School of Social Work and Social Justice. The thought experiment identifies how a school can meet its educational and social justice mission in response to the historic crises of 2020. An outgrowth of the aspirational strategic vision statement is the proposed strengthening…

In this paper, we report our findings about a case study that explored challenges and their leadership practices as they responded to complex township school life. Four secondary schools purposively selected participated. Principals, heads of department and teacher were interviewed, and documents kept in the school reviewed. Findings show that…

In almost any conversation about accountability for private schools, accountability for public schools is assumed. This is a dangerous myth. By assuming that the edifice that states and the federal government have created over the past several decades actually holds schools accountable, school choice advocates immediately find themselves in an…

The evidence-based decision-making emphasis in education has largely focused on the adoption of new practices for which evidence of effectiveness exists. Following adoption, however, the focus shifts to improvement and the appropriate evidence needed to support budget decisions must be local, timely, and relevant. Existing evidence used to support…

The centrality of engagement is critical to the success of higher education in the future. Engagement is essential to most effectively achieving the overall purpose of the university, which is focused on the knowledge enterprise. Today's engagement is scholarly, is an aspect of learning and discovery, and enhances society and higher education.…

The corollary of the concept of the "ivory tower", as reflected in the writings of Plato and Newman amongst others, was, paradoxically, the vital importance of the university for wider society. Nevertheless from the mid-twentieth century, the esteem in which a "liberal" university education was held was diminished by rising…