Session 7: Education and Learning: Expanding Current Policy and Practice to Strengthen Schools, Students, Families and Communities
Wednesday, October 2

Major Themes to Be Covered

1. Schools as are a major force source of social reform our in society and can serve as a hubs in of community change in manya communitiesy: a big picture overview.

2. Expanding While much school reform has focused on improving curriculum management and accountability, there is a growing recognition of the importance of expanding school reform to address barriers to learning -- health, family and social problems that impede student achievement.

3. The role of schools in promoting healthy development (resilience and protective factors).

4. The role of schools in promoting lifelong learning in a community and the potential for building learning communities that transcend the school as a physical place.

5. Enhancing school, family and community partnerships, and parental involvement at every stage of the learning process can serve as important strategies for promoting the school’s role in a lifelong learning community.

6. The important influences of that communities can have on schools and thereby on, families and children.

7. The essential role that after school programs play in the lives of children and families especially in those communities that envision their schools as hubs of family-centered community building efforts.

Students Will Learn

1. Three major reasons why society needs to support public education and why it is imperative to ensure all youngsters have an equal opportunity to succeed in school.

2. How schools have moved away from being a community hub center and why they need to regain that position.

3. Why education reform needs to move from its current 2, to a 3-component viewfocus on curriculum and management reform to include a focus of social, family and community factors that enable positive and education outcomes. of school reform and to understand the nature and scope the third (i.e. enabling) component.

4. The transformative effect that family involvement can have on a child’s school performance, and the parent’s role in the child’s and the parents life long learning trajectories.

5. About policies, prototypes, and basic features of a comprehensive, multifaceted, collaborative and integrated approach to addressing barriers to learning and promoting healthy development that draws upon the assets that communities have to offer.

6. Examples of how schools are enhancing their role in facilitating lifelong learning about policies and initiatives to enhance school, family, and community partnerships.

Required Readings

Adelman HS, Taylor L. 1999. Addressing barriers to student learning - Systemic changes at all levels. Reading and Writing Quarterly. 15(4):251-254.

Finn-Stevenson M, Zigler E. 1999. Chapter 2: Remaking Schools to Fit Families’ Needs. In: Schools of the 21st Century: Linking Child Care and Education. Pages 23-40. Boulder: Westview Press.

Steinberg L. 1996. Chapter 2: A Nation at Risk, A Nation in Denial. In: Beyond the Classroom. Why School Reform has Failed and What Parents Need to do. Pages 29-46. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Steinberg L. 1996. Chapter 10: Beyond the Classroom. In: Beyond the Classroom. Why School Reform has Failed and What Parents Need to do. Pages 183-194. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Suggested Readings

Dryfoos JG. 1994. The full-service vision: responding to critical needs (pp. 1-17). Full-Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.