Public Community Learning Centers (CLCs), at least in the context of the United States, are social structures that have been established to address particular community needs. In the beginning, they were instituted as extensions of state departments human services in order to assist communities with programs such as adult literacy and high school graduation certification. Today, they have taken on a broader role as a result of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Title X, Part I) that gives rural and inner-city public schools nearly $2 billion over five years (1999-2004) to develop CLCs for programs such as mentoring in basic skills or helping high school students prepare for college. Despite these noble efforts, public CLCs are still not integral parts of community sustainability. One could argue that a major cause for this is that they are established mainly for political purposes. However, the problem is much deeper. Public CLCs today are unable to serve as sustainable social structures because they lack several foundational principles that assist communities with creating and maintaining sustainability. In short, they do not adequately reflect the values, beliefs, and knowledge of the current community education movement. Thus, an alternative framework within which communities can develop CLCs is needed. Using a systemic design approach toward the design of a community learning system, an alternative framework for CLCs is designed that enables communities to create the conditions whereby they can become self-reliant, self-governing, and sustainable.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program is a federal program that awards grants to rural and inner-city public schools, or consortia of such schools, to enable them to plan, implement, or expand projects that benefit the educational, health, social services, cultural and recreational needs of the community. Grants awarded under this program may be used to plan, implement, or expand community learning centers. Contents: program information; program eligibility checklist; selection criteria; instructions and forms for preparing the application; how to submit an application; supplementary information; and application checklist.
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.
This is an encompassing review that addresses all aspects ofliteracy (reading, numeracy, and technological literacy, forexample) with a global perspective. It connects the objectives ofliteracy education with broader areas of social welfare, includinghealth, employment and political and economic empowerment. The second volume in a new annual series, this unique publicationfor practitioners in the field of adult learning and literacycollects in one yearly volume the best new knowledge and practiceadvances identified by the prestigious, Harvard-based andfederally-funded literacy center, NCSALL. A single, "user-friendly"source for information on best practices in the field of adultlearning & literacy. The editors' introduction in each volume covers news from the worldof policy and research, while six distinguished writers andpractitioners contribute articles on the most pressing topics inadult literacy. Each volume also includes annotated reviews of thebest books and key journal articles published in the past year.
This book shows how schools can provide services to all members of the community, not just to children of school age. It also demonstrates how a school's instructional program and facilities can include community resources.