A study of 575 volunteers in 57 elementary schools discovered that most are women (aged 36-55) supporting classroom and learning activities. Volunteers improve climate, individual student achievement, and school-community relations. Poorer schools lack sufficient volunteers. Benefits outweigh administrative, recruitment, and training costs. (MLH)

Articles discuss trends and issues in agricultural education, community and technical colleges, career/technical studies, Australian agriculture, agricultural science and technology programs in urban areas, genetic engineering, the impact of changing technologies on agricultural education, volunteers, and performance-based assessment. (JOW)

Describes how scheduling regular parent visiting days was a successful way to involve parents in a Montessori classroom for young children. Presents guidelines for parent visits and describes outcomes of parent visits for children, parents, and teachers. (KB)

A suburban New York high school implemented the nationally recognized World of Difference program, involving a council of student volunteers committed to reducing on campus prejudice. After learning about perpetuation of prejudice and stereotypes in society, students work with faculty advisors to create presentations to enlighten other students.…

With a Web site, teachers and administrators can communicate with parents, committee members can share documents, students can publish newspapers and other work, and parents can e-mail teachers. Planners should browse other schools' sites, utilize volunteer workers, select appropriate software and equipment, and avoid copyright and updating…

Describes an art activity in which Tim Grunwald, a blind member of the community, taught the students to see in a new way. Explains that the students explored how clay feels, smells, and is molded as they closed their eyes; this experience helped the students escape from an intense world of visual images. (CMK)

Explains a work-study program designed for fourth and fifth grade students and describes pros and cons of using student workers in the media center for checking out materials, shelving books, straightening shelves, and dusting. Includes the student's job application, the teacher's application for student workers, and the work-study agreement and…

Examines the effectiveness of Teach Baltimore, a program (using trained college student volunteers) to prevent summer learning loss, for a group of 300 low-income, public elementary students, compared with 135 control students. Except for low-achieving kindergarteners, results show consistent, if statistically insignificant, positive effects for…

Discusses the experience of developing and directing a fiddle group that included both students and adults. States that adult volunteers within the fiddle group are critical to its success. Includes tips for starting a fiddle group. (CMK)

This study examined the association between adolescents' religious development, social integration, and risk-taking behaviors. Religious development was tracked along 4 trajectories from sophomore to senior year in high school: low religiosity (sophomore)-low religiosity (senior), low-high, high-low, and high-high. Civic integration was measured…

Environmental community service projects provide many opportunities for students to help the environment and connect with their communities. In Washington State, students are allowed to obtain a high school varsity letter in community service if they complete over 150 community service hours in a calendar year. To help students toward this goal,…

A powerful practical reclaiming strategy for youth at risk is to tap their potential for service to others. This counters a sense of learned helplessness. The term "learned helplessness" (Seligman, 1975) comes to mind when the author thinks about when she began working with troubled youth more than 20 years ago. Her and her co-workers often spoke…

Four hundred young-, middle-, and old-old adults responded to a battery of quizzes dealing with life satisfaction and objective aging knowledge in the physical, psychological, and social domains. Analyses incorporated domains of aging knowledge, life satisfaction, age, gender, and demographic variables. Both means difference and regression…

In nineteenth century England much charitable activity was directed towards the relief of poverty, but such provision developed significantly to support a variety of requirements. Although from the eighteenth century onwards there were instances of co-operation between voluntary charitable effort and the state, governments in the early and mid…

This article applies Aron and Aron's (1986) self-expansion model to the service-learning context. The self-expansion model proposes a motivational framework for understanding why individuals are motivated to engage in service-learning opportunities that allow for meaningful social interaction. Using a survey design, this study confirms hypotheses…