Publisher's Synopsis
"Very thoughtful and practical, providing well-grounded strategies for effective implementation of community participation."
Gini Doolittle, Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Leadership, Rowan University, New Jersey
Create environments for learning through school-community partnerships!
Burke and Picus make a case for improved learning through school-community partnerships. Drawing from their twenty years of experience working with parents, community volunteers, teachers, and school site administrators, the authors present a concise, easy-to-understand approach to building and working with these powerful alliances.
Developing Community-Empowered Schools is structured to give the reader a clear overview of the necessary components and strategies to understand and develop these critical partnerships. Highlights include:
- Defining community-empowered schools
- Assessing your school′s strengths and weaknesses
- Identifying stakeholders and their roles
- Establishing policies and procedures that support school and community partnerships
- Empowering and training staff for effective school and community partnerships
- Recruiting and training volunteers
- Creating a family literacy program
- Building community collaborations for added resources
- Viewing schools as economic solutions to communities
- Examining the future of community-empowered schools
Handy overheads, training worksheets, sample memos from teachers to students′ families, and enough material for a one-day teacher-training workshop make this a practical, accessible, and valuable resource. In addition, in-depth information is provided on how to seek funding to sustain a school-based community program. Developing Community-Empowered Schools is an all-in-one guide and an essential desk-top reference for bringing all stakeholders together to create optimal learning environments.
