In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, school leaders in a newly decentralized school system reached out to external organizations for partnerships--a job that had previously resided in the central office. The necessity of these contacts and the quantity of newly independent schools make a unique context for studying how school leaders…

Boulder Creek runs literally in the backyard of Donnelly Elementary School and happens to be on the EPA list of impaired water bodies. Therefore, a unique opportunity for problem solving opened the door to an exciting chance for students to become scientists, while also becoming active in their community. With the help of the Idaho Department of…

Much of the current debate about children's transition to school focuses on children's readiness for school. Indeed, Boethel (2004, p. 17) describes transition as the "focal point of readiness." Typically, this focus extends to considering children's competencies--particularly their skills and abilities--at the time of starting school.…

Building a quality auditorium has never come at a cheap price. In today's economy, a $750,000 minimum price tag just for sound, lighting, stage rigging and seats can be exorbitant. However, schools that have built new auditoriums or upgraded existing ones in the past decade say the investment is worth every penny. This article discusses the…

The shifting relationship between citizens and government has special implications for public schools. How schools approach civic education isn't just a matter of course content--it is wrapped up in how teachers and administrators view their role in the larger community. This article describes ways in which both civic education for young people…

Mentorship is a valuable learning tool. A quick search of the Internet will result in hundreds of examples of mentorship between students, teachers, and people from industry. In this article, the author describes an e-mentor program used by aerospace students at Kingswoood Regional High School in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. The author also describes…

In today's spirit of community participation there is a way of planning and building a playscape project that not only creates amazing spaces for children, but saves money, strengthens ties to the community, builds lasting friendships, fosters a sense of pride and ownership in the project, and helps ensure the playscape's long-term care and…

University faculty and outreach program directors have been called to deliver more effective, equitable, and sustainable ways in which neighborhood and university communities may creatively interact. The authors report on the case of the Pittsburgh Studio, an initiative that matches students and resident stakeholders in researching local issues…

Using new perspectives on mathematics as a cultural and social activity and new research on learning outside the school, the authors ask readers to rethink the problem of mathematical achievement for all students, and for Latino/a and black students in particular. The paper argues that doing so will help those students connect how they learn in…

The purpose of the Research and Mapping for MCEECDYA Project: Student Academic Engagement was to examine the characteristics of schools with a low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) from all jurisdictions that were identified to be making a difference to student academic and to identify the key drivers and characteristics of…

The U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) is one of the Obama administration's major antipoverty initiatives and a core strategy of the White House's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. It is intended to improve educational outcomes by creating a continuum of school readiness, academic services, and family and…

Schools have always been recognized as an integral part of the community and the challenge is to ensure this vital component of social infrastructure is delivered in such a manner that long term benefits for local children, families and the broader community are realized. The Western Metropolitan Region in Victoria has experienced rapid…

This article explores the social processes and outcomes associated with a school-linked, community-based program that successfully engages Latino parents and children in a low-income school community. Framed by an ethnographic, embedded case study design, the authors collected data from 32 Latino parents. The findings detail parents' experiences…

Why are Americans, and young Americans in particular, so turned off to government and politics? And, what can be done to arrest these trends? In this article, I suggest that three primary, and mutually reinforcing, trends, which can be summed up as the "relevance factor," the "negativity factor," and the "triumphant market factor," have conspired…

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) is a national membership organization that promotes health equity and social justice through partnerships between communities and higher education institutions. In response to faculty concerns about the institutional barriers to community-engaged careers in the academy, CCPH embarked on a series of…