Jul/Aug 2001
Issue #118
Schools and Communities
This edition of Shelterforce examines the possibilities and challenges facing communities as they begin to address the problems that plague their schools. A topic as broad as education demands far more attention than a single issue of a magazine can provide, however, so this is only a beginning for us as well.
Lessons in Collaboration
Education has always been important to Americans. In every community, teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members work to give students the knowledge and skills necessary to be productive members […]
Changing the Ground Rules
In March 1985, the principal of Dumas Elementary School, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, recruited 120 parents for a breakfast to kick off a campaign to encourage children to […]
Places To Learn
A parent from Brooklyn, New York complains, “How can they expect my child to concentrate when two classes with separate teachers are happening at the same time in the same […]
Parent Power!
Sacramento Area Congregations Together In the early 1990s, only one in 10 students in Sacramento, CA’s worst-performing elementary schools were reading at grade level. Parents and teachers were divided by […]
Shelter Shorts
Government Does Many Things Well-But Not Housing “Most people don’t believe government is capable of much more than delivering the mail,” says Paul C. Light, director of the Brookings […]
Patience and Politics
State education departments are always looking for ways to improve low-performing schools, and not always finding them. In 1992, the Texas Education Agency agreed to try something unusual – a […]
The Importance of Being Gracious
Maybe it’s the aftermath of the presidential election. Maybe it’s the disappearance of the dot.coms as the hot new source of funds. For some reason, my friends and I have […]
Reform Welfare Reform
In 2002, TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) will be up for reauthorization. In preparation for the debate surrounding it, The National Coalition for the Homeless and the Los Angeles […]
Challenging Failing Schools
In the 1970s, the effective schools research movement demonstrated that urban schools are not automatically doomed to fail. Researchers identified schools serving disadvantaged students that produced academic achievement comparable to […]