Community-Based Learning Commons^™

Closing The Achievement Gap: Favoring A Literacy-Based Approach To Solving The Nation's Education Crisis, Timothy M. Siverd

VA Engage Journal

This paper provides an overview of the educational achievement gap, paying particular attention to the gap between white and minority students. Additionally, this paper explores why closing the achievement gap is important, and why it is hard to do. The goal of this paper is to suggest that using a literacy-based method will produce superior results than using STEM-field methods by highlighting a “best practice,” Musick Elementary School in Newark, California.

Narrowing The Digital Divide: The Young Women Leaders Program Herstory Project, Stephanie Newton, Emily Peters, Victoria Tucker, Christine Quilpa, Edith Lawrence, Clare Vierbuchen

VA Engage Journal

Research suggests that girls are at especial disadvantage in the field of informational technology and are less likely than boys to take courses or seek out careers in this area. The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), a mentoring program at the University of Virginia that pairs at-risk middle school girls with college women for a year of mentoring, developed the YWLP HerStory project to engage middle school girls in informational technology through their development of technology projects focused on psychosocial issues of importance to them. This study reviewed an early version of the YWLP HerStory’s technology curriculum and training for …

Smoke Signals: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Eco-Stoves On Community And The Environment, Claire Hennigan, Amy Rogers

VA Engage Journal

The use of solid biomass fuels and the implementation of eco-stoves to mitigate its harmful effects has become a popular topic in discussions on global development. An article published on use of traditional fuels in The New Yorker reports, “A map of the world's poor is easy to make…just follow the smoke.” Eco-stoves are now being constructed in impoverished communities around the world as an alternative to traditional stove models as a means to improve health and overall quality of life. Global Brigades, a sustainable development NGO, has been working in communities in rural Honduras to construct an eco-stove model …

Teacher, Researcher, And Agent For Community Change: A South Texas High School Experience, Francisco Guajardo

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.

Citizen Participation In Neighborhood Organizations In Poor Communities And Its Relationship To Neighborhood And Organizational Collective Efficacy, Mary Ohmer, Elizabeth Beck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Collective efficacy describes residents' perceptions regarding their ability to work with their neighbors to intervene in neighborhood issues to maintain social control and solve problems. This study examines whether citizen participation in neighborhood organizations located in poor communities is related to neighborhood and organizational collective efficacy among residents. The results indicate that the more residents participated in their neighborhood organization, the greater their level of organizational collective efficacy, but not neighborhood collective efficacy. The results of the current study will help support social workers and other community practitioners understand how to effectively facilitate citizen participation in ways that enhance collective …

Financial Knowledge Of The Low-Income Population: Effects Of A Financial Education Program, Min Zhan, Steven G. Anderson, Jeff Scott

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examines the effects of one large financial management training program for low-income people. The data are from tests of pre- and posttraining financial knowledge of 163 participants. The test was designed to measure basic knowledge of participants in five content areas: predatory lending practices, public and work-related benefits, banking practices, savings and investing strategies, and credit use and interest rates.

The findings demonstrate that substantial pre-training knowledge deficiencies existed on basic financial management issues, especially on public and work-related benefits and savings and investing. Results also indicate that the program was effective in improving the financial knowledge of …

A New Look At Senior Education, Harry Sky

Maine Policy Review

Rabbi Harry Sky, founder of the senior college movement in Maine, provides his insights on the increasing desire by older adults for lifelong learning. He writes that older adults are seeking experiences to counteract the profound sense of loneliness and “disconnectedness” that often accompany retirement. Institutions such as Maine’s senior colleges provide one such kind of experience, though they are not the only answer. Rabbi Sky reflects that in this country, we have not afforded the honor to seniors seen in other parts of the world, and that we should take a page from other civilizations.

Training Leaders For Multiracial And Multi-Ethnic Collaboration, James Jennings

Trotter Review

Due to changes unfolding in urban demographics, along with continuing social and economic problems in many cities, there is a growing need for a cadre of community-based leaders to work in, and on behalf of, communities of color. Developing such leaders requires understanding of the factors that determine the nature of racial and ethnic relations between African-American, Latino, and Asian communities. Unfortunately, training programs in higher education designed to equip African-American, Latino, and Asian urban leaders to work with each other and become effective change agents in their communities have not been widely established, even at institutions with strong urban …

Aoa: A Personal Approach To Environmental Education, Michael J. Naylon

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

MESFI (Minnesota Environmental Sciences Foundation, Inc.) is field testing materials for a community-based environmental course of study. Program emphasis includes clarification of values and examination of logistics necessary to the maintenance of communities in order that they might meet social needs. The approach is individualized, providing a means of studying the impact of one's lifestyle on the environment. Emphasis is placed on development of case studies, small group discussion, and cooperative problem-solving. Use of graphics as a form of summary is stressed. The Area of Affect (AOA) is a method of mapping participant activity, range or environmental impact within the …

Learning Nucleus May Be A Leaven For Larger Community, Frances Crary

Green Revolution

No abstract provided.

Holiday Activities For Youngsters, O. Evans Scott

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

"Only those who have Hie patience to do simple things perfectly acquire the skill to do difficult things easily" (Schiller).

SCHOOL holidays, eagerly anticipated by children should be a time of joy for all.

Mothers can not drop everything to entertain their children and bored children crying "what can I do?" and getting in her way often cause a mother to dread school holidays.

Some Simple Christmas Cake Decorations, O. Evans Scott

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

THE last few weeks before Christmas are so busy for the housewife that she will welcome these ideas for decorating the Christmas cake effectively in a short space of time.

Cleaning Lace, G Liddlelow

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

"FARM AND HOME" readers who have read Mrs. Glaskell's novel "Cranford" will recall the delightful account of the lace washing episode.

While it is not the general practice today to wash lace in milk this method has much to commend it.

Latent And Manifest Function Of The Theory And Research Of Bronislaw Malinowski, M. J. Daniels

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.