People Helping People. An Overview of Community Education.

Overview & Synopsis

This booklet provides an overview of community education for those readers interested in developing a community education program. The content is contained in fifteen brief sections. The first section introduces the concept of community education. Section 2 presents a chart comparing the traditional school's use pattern to that of the community school. Sections 3 and 4 list twelve community education goals and ten factors related to successful community education development. The fifth section presents a diagram of a common sequential process for implementing a total concept of community education, and the sixth section discusses local, state, and federal support. Section 7 explains the importance of local leadership, and sections 8 and 9 present a sample organizational chart for a public school system developing a community education program, and a chart of various programs comprising community education, respectively. Sections 10 through 15 present the following information: an overview of the major revenue sources and the range of average percentiles; budget outlines for both a full-time and part-time program development effort; possible approaches to program evaluation; listings of commitments to consider when determining whether to start a community education program; listings of eighty centers of community education located at institutions for higher education; and brief descriptions of ten community education national information sources. (EM)