During the past several decades, child poverty rates have been higher in rural than in urban areas, and now 2.5 million children live in deep poverty in rural America. Studies indicate that poor children are most affected by the typical "summer slide." Summer programming has the ability to address the issues of academic loss, nutritional…

After the hurricanes, faculty asked the students to help with the relief efforts in different ways. Most students volunteered to work in shelters directly with individual or groups of children, youths, and adults. After their experiences, they wrote brief reflections about what they had done. Their comments show that they developed a better…

In this article, the authors call for tying service learning to feminist agendas, emphasizing civic activism involving true collaboration with communities. They report on a graduate seminar, "Feminism and Composition," at their own university that worked toward this goal by having students self-reflectively participate in local organizations that…

This study describes the interactions of three adult-child reading partnerships in a program that matches corporate volunteers with "at risk" students for weekly hour-long story reading sessions. Using discourse analysis within a sociocultural framework, the researcher identified variation in the way these partners were constructing the act and…

A 2003 qualitative study examined the perspectives of 70 stakeholders in two adult literacy programs in Manitoba, Canada. Two stakeholders were Literacy Working Group (LWG) chairpersons, who held administrative positions akin to public school boards. Of particular significance to these administrators were issues related to program coordination,…

Teacher effectiveness is one of the most important determinants of the success of adult literacy programmes. From the outset of the campaign movement, the National Literacy Mission (NLM) of the Government of India has emphasised the need for a training and support system for campaign personnel, who often have limited education and lack of…

Poor school attendance is a problem in many schools throughout the United States. A study was conducted on students in an elementary school who were all paired with adult volunteer reading partners to assess whether attendance improved the year the reading program was implemented. The study involved a pre- and posttest exploratory research design…

The issue of child labor continues to challenge thinking on the nature of work, play, schooling and apprenticeship. New wisdom from some contemporary academic writing places children closer to the center of our understanding of consumption, production and reproduction, and at the heart of inequities generated by globalization. Child labor comes in…

When Gilberto Zelaya visited South Africa in 2000, he was struck by the high level of voter participation and turnout in that country. Back in the United States, Zelaya decided to work on voter participation in this country. As the voter empowerment director for the Montgomery County Board of Elections in Maryland, he organized a pilot program in…

According to data collected in Spring 1992 as part of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, 44% of high school seniors in 1993 had performed some type of unpaid community service in the past 2 years, and approximately 15% of all high school seniors performed some required service during the same period. Half of the seniors performing…

The materials for learning Kanuri are designed for the language training of Peace Corps volunteers. They include lessons organized around ten themes: introductions (others, family, greetings and condolences); expressing one's needs; shopping; the tailor; meals; giving and getting directions; travel; daily activities; and gardening. Lessons include…

The Bernard van Leer Foundation initiated a program in France entitled Relais Enfants-Parents to bring the children of prisoners to the forefront of social, political and judicial policy. The Relais Enfants-Parents program works to safeguard the psychological and emotional development of children by serving as a link between them and their…

Test-retest reliabilities and practice effect magnitudes were considered for nine computer-simulated tasks of everyday cognition and five traditional neuropsychological tests. The nine simulated everyday memory tests were from the Memory Assessment Clinic battery as follows: (1) simple reaction time while driving; (2) divided attention (driving…

This action research project involved the implementation and evaluation of a program for increased parental involvement at an elementary school in western Illinois. Evidence for the lack of parental involvement included declining membership in the Parent-Teacher Organization, elimination of the computer lab, limited library hours due to lack of…

Through wilderness stewardship programs, service projects, or trail crews, college outdoor programs can help land management agencies with their maintenance needs and provide student participants with rewarding service learning opportunities. Trail crews are usually composed of volunteer outdoor enthusiasts who take part in a multitude of…