Carol Barkin – författare

A community school differs from other public schools in important ways: it is generally open most of the time, governed by a partnership between the school system and a community agency, and offers a broad array of health and social services. It often has an extended day before and after school, features parent involvement programs, and works for community enrichment. How should such a school be structured? How can its success be measured? Community Schools in Action: Lessons from a Decade of Practice presents the Children's Aid Society's (CAS) approach to creating community schools for the 21st century. CAS began this work more than a decade ago and today operates thirteen such schools in three low-income areas of New York City. Through a technical assistance center operated by CAS, hundreds of other schools across the country and the world are adapting this model. Based on their own experiences working with community schools, the contributors to the volume supply invaluable information about the selected program components. They describe how and why CAS started its community school initiative and explain how CAS community schools are organized, integrated with the school system, sustained, and evaluated. The book also includes several contributions from experts outside of CAS: a city superintendent, an architect, and the director of the Coalition for Community Schools. Co-editors Joy Dryfoos, an authority on community schools, and Jane Quinn, CAS's Assistant Executive Director of Community Schools, have teamed up with freelance writer Carol Barkin to provide commentary linking the various components together. For those interested in transforming their schools into effective child- and family-centered institutions, this book provides a detailed road map. For those concerned with educational and social policy, the book offers a unique example of research-based action that has significant implications for our society.

Of the 33 million adolescents in the United States, almost 10 million are at risk of failing to become responsible adults. They attend schools that do not serve their needs, lack the support of caring adults, and, as a result, are alienated from mainstream society. African-American and Hispanic children, increasingly segregated in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, are particularly vulnerable.In Adolescence: Growing Up in America Today, a follow-up to Joy Dryfoos's landmark volume, Adolescents at Risk (OUP, 1991), Joy Dryfoos and Carol Barkin take a close look at the lives of young people, identify some of their problems, and present solutions based on state-of-the-art prevention and treatment strategies. They examine important issues in adolescents' lives - sex, violence, drugs, health, mental health, and education. Reviewing successful prevention programs and policy studies, Dryfoos and Barkin demonstrate that we know what to do to prevent high-risk behaviours: young people need to establish relationships with adults; parents need to be involved in their children's lives; and programs need to be comprehensive, sensitive to cultural differences, and staffed by highly trained personnel.Dryfoos and Barkin argue that turning our backs on adolescents will lead to disturbing consequences: the achievement gap will grow, outcomes will worsen, school systems will struggle with the growing disparities, and we as a nation will fall behind the rest of the world in our capacity to educate our youth. If, however, we decide that we want a better quality of life for our children, we will ensure that every young person has access to an excellent education. Schools, youth workers, and parents cannot alone provide a better quality of life for our adolescents, but each must play a major role, and all must work together. Providing a roadmap for the development and implementation of sound policies for American teenagers in the twenty-first century, this volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of our nation's youth.