Research On Schools Neighborhoods And Communities

Research on Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Toward Civic Responsibility focuses on research and theoretical developments related to the role of geography in education, human development, and health. William F. Tate IV, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and former President of the American Educational Research Association, presents a collection of chapters from across disciplines to further understand the strengths of and problems in our communities. Today, many research literatures--e.g., health, housing, transportation, and education--focus on civic progress, yet rarely are there efforts to interrelate these literatures to better understand urgent problems and promising possibilities in education, wherein social context is central. In this volume, social context--in particular, the unequal opportunities that result from geography--is integral to the arguments, analyses, and case studies presented. Written by more than 40 educational scholars from top universities across the nation, the research presented in this volume provides historical, moral, and scientifically based arguments with the potential to inform understandings of civic problems associated with education, youth, and families, and to guide the actions of responsible citizens and institutions dedicated to advancing the public good.

Research on Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Toward Civic Responsibility focuses on research and theoretical developments related to the role of geography in education, human development, and health. William F. Tate IV, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and former President of the American Educational Research Association, presents a collection of chapters from across disciplines to further understand the strengths of and problems in our communities. Today, many research literatures—e.g., health, housing, transportation, and education—focus on civic progress, yet rarely are there efforts to interrelate these literatures to better understand urgent problems and promising possibilities in education, wherein social context is central. In this volume, social context—in particular, the unequal opportunities that result from geography—is integral to the arguments, analyses, and case studies presented. Written by more than 40 educational scholars from top universities across the nation, the research presented in this volume provides historical, moral, and scientifically based arguments with the potential to inform understandings of civic problems associated with education, youth, and families, and to guide the actions of responsible citizens and institutions dedicated to advancing the public good.

Action Research for Classrooms, Schools, and Communities is a core textbook for the action research course. This book addresses the trend toward high-stakes testing and teacher accountability by focusing on understanding student outcomes. With edTPA rapidly becoming part of the requirements for teacher certification, teacher preparation programs will increasingly be looking to measure the impact of the teacher candidate on student learning. The book focuses on the potential for action research to lead to greater understanding about student outcomes from the perspective of teachers, school leaders, and community members. There is a special emphasis on helping pre-service and experienced teachers use action research to understand their impact on student learning. There is an emphasis on using action research to understand community impacts on schools; unlike other books, this text acknowledges the complex ecology linking classrooms, schools, and the community, especially regarding issues fundamental to school reform.

Place- and community-based education – an approach to teaching and learning that starts with the local – addresses two critical gaps in the experience of many children now growing up in the United States: contact with the natural world and contact with community. It offers a way to extend young people’s attention beyond the classroom to the world as it actually is, and to engage them in the process of devising solutions to the social and environmental problems they will confront as adults. This approach can increase students’ engagement with learning and enhance their academic achievement. Envisioned as a primer and guide for educators and members of the public interested in incorporating the local into schools in their own communities, this book explains the purpose and nature of place- and community-based education and provides multiple examples of its practice. The detailed descriptions of learning experiences set both within and beyond the classroom will help readers begin the process of advocating for or incorporating local content and experiences into their schools.

A series of policy shifts over the past decade promises to change how Americans decide where to send their children to school. In theory, the boom in standardized test scores and charter schools will allow parents to evaluate their assigned neighborhood school, or move in search of a better option. But what kind of data do parents actually use while choosing schools? Are there differences among suburban and urban families? How do parents’ choices influence school and residential segregation in America? Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools presents a breakthrough analysis of the new era of school choice, and what it portends for American neighborhoods. The distinguished contributors to Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools investigate the complex relationship between education, neighborhood social networks, and larger patterns of inequality. Paul Jargowsky reviews recent trends in segregation by race and class. His analysis shows that segregation between blacks and whites has declined since 1970, but remains extremely high. Moreover, white families with children are less likely than childless whites to live in neighborhoods with more minority residents. In her chapter, Annette Lareau draws on interviews with parents in three suburban neighborhoods to analyze school-choice decisions. Surprisingly, she finds that middle- and upper-class parents do not rely on active research, such as school tours or test scores. Instead, most simply trust advice from friends and other people in their network. Their decision-making process was largely informal and passive. Eliot Weinginer complements this research when he draws from his data on urban parents. He finds that these families worry endlessly about the selection of a school, and that parents of all backgrounds actively consider alternatives, including charter schools. Middle- and upper-class parents relied more on federally mandated report cards, district websites, and online forums, while working-class parents use network contacts to gain information on school quality. Little previous research has explored what role school concerns play in the preferences of white and minority parents for particular neighborhoods. Featuring innovative work from more than a dozen scholars, Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools adroitly addresses this gap and provides a firmer understanding of how Americans choose where to live and send their children to school.

Drawing on a range of contexts influenced by the Promise Neighborhoods Program—a federal place-based initiative to improve educational outcomes for students in distressed urban and rural neighborhoods—this book outlines effective characteristics and elements for implementing supplementary education. Chapter authors demonstrate that the disparities in educational achievement between white and non-white students can only be addressed by a holistic approach that takes the communities in which schools are situated as its focal point. This edited collection distills the insights gained from the communities implementing such comprehensive education programs and provides the framework and models for reproducing such successes.

This open access book explores the complex relationship between schooling as a set of practices embedded in educational institutions and their specific spatial dimensions from different disciplinary perspectives. It presents innovative empirical and conceptual research by international scholars from the fields of social geography, pedagogy, educational and social sciences in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Czechia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Canada. The book covers a broad range of topics, all examined from a spatial perspective: the governance of schooling, the transition processes of and within national school systems, the question of small schools in peripheral areas as well as the embeddedness of schooling in broader processes of social change. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, the book offers deep insights into current theoretical debates and empirical case studies within the broad research field encompassing the complex relationship between education and space.

This book focuses on special organizational configurations for schools in diverse parts of the world. Some of these new organizational and institutional designs are called multi-service schools, others are called extended service schools and still others are called community learning centers. While these schools have different names and notable different characteristics, they belong in the same category because of a common feature in their design: they connect schools with once-separate community programs and services.Chief among the prototypes for these new organizational and institutional designs are the ones featured in the book’s title. Some are called multi-service schools to indicate that they selectively provide some new programs and services. Others are called extended service schools to indicate that they serve young people beyond the regular school day, seeking influence and control over out-of-school time while enabling alternative teaching-learning strategies, and providing services other than typical “pupil support services.” Still others are called community learning centers, a name that showcases the educational functions and priorities of schools and announcing priorities for adult learning and development. Community schools, still called in some places full-service community schools, serves as a prototype that increasingly positions schools as multi-purpose, multi-component, anchor institutions serving identifiable neighborhoods and entire rural communities. The book is structured to enhance understanding of these organizational prototypes and provides comparative social analysis. It also identifies knowledge needs and gaps as well as developmental territory for the future.