Sara McAlister, in her article "Why Community Engagement Matters in School Turnaround," in this issue (p35-42) of "Voices in Urban Education," lays out the strong research base showing that family and community participation is a crucial resource not only for individual student achievement, but also for catalyzing and…

Service learning bridges classroom learning and community volunteerism and is anchored in the curriculum, classroom discussion, and community. We incorporated service learning projects (SLP) into three Social Determinants of Health courses (2008-2010) to promote: experiential learning; undergraduate scholarship; faculty career development through…

Currently the United States is home to a large and increasing immigrant population. Many of these immigrant students use community-based programs for their educational needs. Despite the large number of immigrant students who currently use alternate resources, such as churches and community centers, for education, adult language learners in…

The School of Planning Policy and Development at the University of Southern California brought together representatives of neighborhood councils and city agencies of the city of Los Angeles together in an action research program. This action research program called the Collaborative Learning Project developed a collaboration process called the…

Our ethnography focuses on an urban community change organization within a predominantly African American and Latino population. Latino Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Theory help us understand the Spanish speakers' positioning and how particularities of Latinas/os' experience challenged power relations and group cohesion. Our findings…

By offering open-source software (OSS)-based networks as an affordable technology alternative, we partnered with a nonprofit community organization. In this article, we narrate the client-based experiences of this partnership, highlighting the ways in which OSS and open-source culture (OSC) transformed our students' and our own expectations of…

Community organizing brings Latina/o families together to enhance repertoires of culturally relevant practices to promote health and curriculum. The Healthy Schools Campaign, a 4-year environmental justice partnership between public health researchers and Latina/o organizations in 2 neighborhoods of Chicago, was formed to confront the epidemics of…

In China, rapid development has prompted massive migration from rural to urban areas. Migrants' participation in Urban Residents Committees (URCs) and other community organizations offers opportunities for the development of social capital and democracy in contemporary China. We use 2006 survey data from a stratified convenience sample of 3,024…

In this article we explore recent history to uncover the role that public engagement has played in the effort to reform America's urban schools. In the place of narratives that focus on elite actors (foundations, unions, corporations, etc.), we focus on the role of local stakeholders. Specifically, we look to how the changing political context…

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen to examine the racial/ ethnic composition of student organizations as well as the relationship between student organization participation and close interracial friendship. White students were the most likely to be in majority White environments in fraternities and sororities,…

The nonprofit community-based organization Pittsburgh Promise aims to help revitalize Pittsburgh and its public school system by offering college scholarships to any Pittsburgh Public School graduate who meets the academic requirements. Executive director Saleem Ghubril spoke with "Voices in Urban Education" guest editor Jacob Mishook…

California state-funded local tobacco control projects have instituted smoke-free multi-unit housing (MUH) policy adoption campaigns in order to secure voluntary policy throughout the state. While landlords can legally prohibit smoking at MUH complexes in California, they often oppose such measures. The objective of this study was to analyze…

This article focuses on one strand of community engagement: community-based learning for students. It considers in particular Interchange as a case study. Interchange is a registered charity based in, but independent of, a department in a Higher Education Institution. It brokers between undergraduate research/work projects and Voluntary Community…

In the last decade, educational researchers and scholars have turned new attention to the theory and practice of community organizing as a method for addressing education injustices. While there are diverse traditions of community organizing work, by far the most influential model in US contexts is that of Saul Alinsky, whose "Rules for Radicals"…

How can low-income, non-English-speaking parents become advocates, leaders, and role models in their children's schools? "A Cord of Three Strands" offers a close study of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, a grassroots organization on the northwest side of Chicago, whose work on parent engagement has drawn national attention. The…