Educating for informed community involvement.

Service learning, which integrates community service into coursework, provides a pedagogical intervention that can promote the civic growth of students in unique and powerful ways. Research is reviewed that documents the capacity of service learning to meet learning objectives associated with a conceptual framework that focuses on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of a civic-minded college graduate. The outcomes of service learning should facilitate these students assuming influential roles in helping others become empowered, and thereby are important for enhancing the quality of life in communities.

George Washington Community High School: analysis of a partnership network.

After five years with no public schools in their community, residents and neighborhood organizations of the Near Westside of Indianapolis advocated for the opening of George Washington Community High School (GWCHS). As a neighborhood in close proximity to the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the Near Westside and campus worked together to address this issue and improve the educational success of youth. In fall 2000, GWCHS opened as a community school and now thrives as a national model, due in part to its network of community relationships.

Father absence and cognitive performance in a large sample of six- to eleven-year-old children.

The effects of father absence on educational achievement and intellectual development of 6-11-year-old children were investigated by employing a nationally representative sample of 5,493 father-present and 616 father-absent children from the Health Examination Survey of the National Center for Health Statistics. Scores on the WISC and the WRAT were significantly depressed for father-absent white children. Father-absent black children evidenced a decreased test performance only on measures of achievement.