The District III -- East Area Fine Arts Initiative began during the 2016-2017 academic year in Chavez High School feeder schools, and expanded during the 2017-2018 academic year to Milby High School feeder schools. This expansion extended access to a high-quality fine arts education for approximately 16,301 students across all grade levels within…

Research has begun to show that certain schoolwide characteristics--such as student-centered learning environments, leadership, and safety--can be important for improving student outcomes. In keeping with these insights, school improvement efforts around the country are becoming less narrowly focused on the performance of individual students and…

University-community partnerships have always been an important part of Towson University's mission and charge as an anchor institution in the Baltimore metropolitan region. After the recent unrest in Baltimore, these partnerships are more important than ever. This paper will explore Towson's institutional partnership governance and new…

This article describes a group of dedicated educators who, in the midst of a constant barrage of attacks, dramatically changed the conversation. It is the story of a union that recognized that, in order to bring about the transformation necessary for the betterment of the entire community, its members needed to transform the way in which it…

Background: While it is a national priority to support the health and education of students, these sectors must better align, integrate, and collaborate to achieve this priority. This article summarizes the literature on the connection between health and academic achievement using the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) framework…

Land-grant extension is an ongoing example of higher education outreach and community engagement. Population, food, climate, and geographic isolation all factor into the importance of producing and facilitating agricultural knowledge. This qualitative study took place in a geographically isolated region with potential food security issues to…

Sometimes, education leaders are so intent on getting their message out that they neglect the other side of the equation--listening. In this article, Jean Johnson of Public Agenda describes the conditions that make "messaging" a perilous undertaking today. "These are skeptical times," she explains, in which Americans are…

Perceptions and experiences of elementary school counselors' collaborative efforts with community mental health providers are examined through this exploratory phenomenological study. Ten participants engaged in two in-depth interviews. Collaboration was considered an effective way to increase services to students and their families. Six themes…

Community college students today face multiple barriers--personal, financial, and academic--to achieving their postsecondary goals. In order to help more people juggle the myriad facets of daily life that make it difficult to stay in school and complete credentials, colleges need to deliver a broad range of support services in a coordinated…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that schools maintain policies, strategies, and practices that support parental involvement in the education of all children (No Child Left Behind [NCLB], 2002). Houtenville and Conway (2008) found that by implementing strategies which promote family engagement in the educational process, schools can…

The authors of this article try to demonstrate that there is clear institutional momentum for feminist community-engaged work and partnership. There are signs that feminists committed to community engagement are shaping university structures that can extend this momentum, perhaps especially in the ways women and gender studies departments align…

Building relationships is the essence of the community college. Higher education administrators learned long ago that building rapport with businesses, state and local government, and constituents is the best way to represent the interests of the community. But that does not make it easy. Board members come and go and the shifting dynamics of…

Out-of-school time programs that provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational content are promising approaches to develop skills and abilities in students. These programs may potentially inspire students with engaging hands-on, minds-on activities that encourages their natural curiosity around STEM content areas.…

This chapter describes the impact of an alternative spring break program on students at the Savannah College of Art and Design over a set of years as well as its effectiveness as a service-learning tool.

The paper explores two universities' strategies of impact and engagement and their perceptions by local economic and policy stakeholders in a post-industrial city of Scotland. The concept of structural embeddedness is used to unpack the logics and repertoires of action of local universities and to relate discourses and actions to the nature and…