This paper details the early childhood transition activities of three schools in southern Queensland, Australia, as reported by school administrators. The transition programs were analysed using the categories of the Transition to School Matrix of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education. Activities fell into the first four categories…

This article argues that a commonly neglected dimension in service-learning pedagogy is the consideration of community perspectives in developing these service-learning projects. Areas considered in this study were: (1) Community members' needs and problems, (2) Community members' perceived roles and participation, and (3) Community members'…

Student drug and alcohol policies often impose consequences on students that may place the child at greater risk of delinquent behavior. The project described in this article sought to explore how different stakeholders in two public school systems perceived the ability of their drug and alcohol policies to protect the needs of the school, the…

Background: Researchers, schools, and community organizations are increasingly interested in forming partnerships to improve health and learning outcomes for adolescents. School-based service learning programs with young adolescents have been shown to improve students' health and educational outcomes. Quality school-based service learning practice…

In March 2009, the author accompanied 19 university students to El Paso, Texas, for an alternative spring break (ASB). The author and the students traveled to the urban zip code with the lowest per capita income in the country to study U.S.-Mexico border issues. In the ASB program's language, they sought to gain "new perspectives on social…

In August 2006, the Foundation for Long Term Care (Albany, New York) received funding for a variant on service learning in elder care in which Boomers, other older adults, as well as college students would jointly engage in service-learning projects designed to address community needs in five different college towns and cities. This article…

This article is essentially written as two linked parts. The first part considers how space, spatiality and history can contribute to understanding and "doing something about" the sustainability of rural communities. This is done by extensive reference to Soja's (1989 & 1996) space and spatial theorising and selective perspectives of…

The Serve America Act was signed into law in April 2009. The Act provides for many opportunities to serve and learn for pre-college youth, college students and graduates, and even baby boomers. It dramatically increases intensive service opportunities by setting AmeriCorps on a path from 75,000 positions annually to 250,000 by 2017, focusing that…

Evaluators face challenges when programs consistently fail to meet expectations for performance or improvement and consequently, evaluators may recommend that closing a program is the most prudent course of action. However, the evaluation literature provides little guidance regarding when an evaluator might recommend program closure. Given…

The purpose of this study was to discover if core characteristics exist forming a Vietnamese community college model and to determine if the characteristics would explain the model. This study utilized three theoretical orientations while reviewing the existing literature, formulating the research questions, examining the data and drawing…

In 2008, the Shreveport-Bossier Community Foundation selected education, health, and poverty as funding priorities. But the foundation realized that it needed more specific guidelines on how best to distribute grants. RAND developed a framework for making investment decisions that incorporates the best of traditional decision making approaches.…

This leaflet illustrates the many ways in which universities impact on the local area. Universities are a major contributor to the economy in their own right, both as employers and purchasers of goods. Their social and cultural influence is also felt through their provision of: (1) art galleries, museums and exhibitions; (2) cinemas and theatres;…

This Participatory Action Research (PAR) project worked with four active street life oriented U. S. born African men, to document how a community sample of street life oriented U. S. born African men between the ages of 16-65, frame and use "street life" as a Site of Resiliency (Payne, Dissertation, 2005; "Journal of Black Psychology" 34(1):3-31,…

The concept of recentering the Deaf community in interpreter education stems from the recent discussion of program evolution away from stakeholders and into academia highlighted by Monikowski and Peterson (2005). The University of North Florida, in the initial stages of developing a B.S. degree and M.Ed. concentration in ASL/English Interpreting,…

"Why Rural Matters 2011-12" is the sixth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. While it is the sixth in a series, this report is not simply an…