Related topics or keywords - community involvement

The new research synthesis produced by SEDL’s National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools examines the impact of different family and community connections on student achievement.

The new research synthesis produced by SEDL’s National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools examines the impact of different family and community connections on student achievement.

Low-income parents must learn how to work the education system in the same way wealthier families do, writes Edwin C. Darden, education-policy director at Appleseed, a network of public-interest justice centers. Maryland’s Montgomery County schools, for example, offer around 35 free Parent Academy workshops, as well as a call center that will answer questions in both English and Spanish. Education Week (premium article access compliments of Edweek.org) (12/26)
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/12/26/17darden_web.h27.html?tmp=929586154

This project provided help to ten project schools in engaging parents in school improvement planning. From data collected in the project schools, the research team built models of parent involvement and tested them to assess their impact.
— Kenneth Leithwood, Charryn McElheron-Hopkins (OISE/UT) (2004)
(Source: Canadian Education Association )

With this report, the Canadian Education Association provides a context for rethinking schools to drive dialogue and critical thinking about the challenges we face in educating all students to take their place in a world of dynamic social, technological and economic change.

The annual Survey of Canadian Attitudes toward Learning (SCAL) provides a unique opportunity to gauge the opinions, perceptions, and beliefs of Canadians about various aspects of learning in Canada. Now in its second year, the survey was designed by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) in consultation with Statistics Canada, which administered the survey on behalf of CCL.

Increasingly, Aboriginal communities are administering educational programs and services formerly delivered by non-Aboriginal governments. They are developing culturally relevant curricula and community-based language and culture programs, and creating their own educational institutions. As Aboriginal people work to improve community wellbeing through lifelong learning, they recognize the need to identify appropriate measurement tools that will help them assess what is working and what is not.
(Source: Canadian Council on Learning)

The Composite Learning Index is a practical measurement tool that can help Canadians identify their community’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to fostering the best possible environment for lifelong learning. The CLI results offer community leaders and decision-makers a unique and valuable opportunity to help shape how their community can achieve the economic and social benefits that come from lifelong learning.
(Source: Canadian Council on Learning,published in both English and French)

Science is playing a growing role in public policy and in the daily lives of most citizens. As a result, science literacy skills are becoming increasingly important. Free-choice science learning is a form of non-sequential, self-paced and voluntary learning “that is guided by a person’s needs and interests.”

“Enriching Communities” was the theme of the first International Baccalaureate Organization Worldwide Electronic Conference in 2004. John Abbott, as a contributor/leader, noted that the theme suggested that “right now, many people fear that communities are not what they once were, or indeed might be in the future, and that somehow they have to be enriched.” He contributed four papers to the conference, all on the topic of community (attached as one document, below).

The rise of the consumer society is a powerful force and, in partnership with technological change, it is reshaping the nature of community, family, childhood and education. Educational researcher Terry Ryan discusses societal problems created by the modern economy and then reminds us that the these social trends are not beyond human control. Ryan argues that change brings opportunities and despite the serious challenges facing communities, there is much reason to be hopeful and excited about the future.

Human beings are communal by nature and living together – in communities – is our most common and most natural state of life. John Abbott discusses the fact that communities must be created and sustained by the conscious intentions and actions of their members, and that we must attend to health and vitality of our communities in order to thrive – and to learn! – as a species.

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