Rita Hodges - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Rita Hodges

Springer eBooks, Dec 15, 2015

The compelling, important, and innovative idea of “university-assisted community schools” origina... more The compelling, important, and innovative idea of “university-assisted community schools” originated at the University of Pennsylvania. Today it is an advanced, international exemplar. The main ideas merit attention and scale-up. For example, universities and other higher education institutions located in challenging urban neighborhoods and rural places have important resources to offer local children, families, communities, schools, and neighborhood organizations, starting with their talented faculty and highly energetic and creative students. These resources position these higher education institutions to serve as anchors and hubs for the kinds of complex, multi-faceted innovations needed to improve community outcomes, as well as mutually beneficial outcomes for the higher education institutions doing this important work. Starting in the mid 1980s, the leader-authors of this chapter and their school and community partners seized this idea and then rolled up their sleeves to make it happen. For example, they pioneered and scaled-up important innovations such as academically-based community service—where professors teach their courses in local community schools and other community settings—while also demonstrating how higher education institutions and leaders of research universities in particular can become transformational agents for beneficial social change. This chapter describes the journey toward this advanced exemplar, including the development of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the growth of the international network of university-assisted community schools, and the several awards that nominate this model as an international exemplar.

Higher Learning Research Communications, 2016

In the rapidly accelerating global era in which we now live, human beings must solve a vast array... more In the rapidly accelerating global era in which we now live, human beings must solve a vast array of unprecedently complex problems. Perhaps the most complex and significant problems facing society today are persistent, widening, and increasingly destructive social, economic, and political inequality; globally destructive, man-made climate change; and increasingly frequent and savage terrorist acts. Given their proclaimed dedication to critical intelligence, and their unique constellation of formidable resources to develop it, institutions of higher education, we submit, have a unique responsibility to help solve these problems—indeed all the problems intensified by globalization.

Research for The Road Half Traveled began early in 2009, but this report has a much longer gestat... more Research for The Road Half Traveled began early in 2009, but this report has a much longer gestation. The Democracy Collaborative was founded in 2000 by a group of scholars at the University of Maryland, College Park, who saw the need for a center that could promote engaged scholarship that linked research to democratic practice. Maryland itself is a land-grant university, so the Collaborative has seen as one of its goals to examine what being a land-grant institution means in the 21st century. In 2005, The Democracy Collaborative published an article outlining its engagement vision. Later, in 2007, the Collaborative produced a full report titled Linking Colleges to Communities: Engaging the University for Community Development. Several dozen people participated in interviews for that report and their contributions helped frame the questions of this study. In Linking Colleges, we outlined the history of university engagement and examined recent developments in policy and in the field, but with limited detail on any one school. Here, we wanted to examine fewer schools in greater depth, thereby enabling us to personally visit every school we selected-and helping us to generate a better understanding of both the challenges and opportunities for universities that seek to develop and realize an anchor institution mission. There are numerous other influences, but two are particularly important to mention. One is the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, which produced its Anchor Institutions Toolkit in March 2008 to provide a manual for universities seeking to expand their community partnership work in a responsible way. Report author Rita Axelroth hails from the Netter Center and thus brings an inside perspective to this work on how community partnership centers function. A second influence is the Anchor Institutions Task Force, a group created in December 2008 to advise incoming U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan on how the federal government might leverage the intellectual and economic resources of universities to better conditions in low-income communities. Both authors participated in the Task Force and in writing its report. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Ira Harkavy and the two-dozen original members of the Task Force. Ted Howard, Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative, has played a key role in framing the Democracy Collaborative's research. Financial support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Kendeda Fund made this project possible. In conducting this study, we relied on the good will and contributions of literally hundreds of individuals. A full list of interview subjects and their affiliations is included in Appendix B. For interviews on the "university" side of the community-university partnership equation, we relied on having contact people who could help coordinate our site visits. Steve Dubb did the site interviews at Emory, Penn, and Yale and gratefully acknowledges the extraordinary logistical assistance and scheduling efforts of Sam Marie Engle at Emory, Joann Weeks at Penn, and Michael Morand at Yale. Rita Axelroth conducted the site visits at Cincinnati, IUPUI, LeMoyne-Owen, Miami Dade College, Minnesota, Portland State, and Syracuse. She gratefully viii • Acknowledgements acknowledges the remarkable coordination and communication efforts of Mary Stagaman at Cincinnati, Starla Officer at IUPUI, Jeffrey Higgs at the LeMoyne-Owen CDC, Joshua Young at Miami Dade, Irma McClaurin at Minnesota, Amy Spring at Portland State, and Marilyn Higgins at Syracuse. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of the following individuals who reviewed sections of the report and provided critical feedback.

The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa, 2021

Principal Leadership, Oct 1, 2011

Peabody Journal of Education, 2013

This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed ... more This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed at the University of Pennsylvania with its school and community partners in West Philadelphia since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community institutions and groups, and helps solve the myriad problems schools and community confront in a rapidly changing world. Building on Dewey's ideas, the authors argue that all colleges and universities should make solving the problem of the American schooling system a very high institutional priority; their contributions to its solution should count heavily both in assessing their institutional performance (by themselves and others) and be a critical factor when responding to their requests for renewed or increased resources and financial support. Providing concrete examples from over 20 years of work in West Philadelphia, as well as from initiatives across the country, this article explores the potential of developing university-assisted community schools as an effective approach for school reform, pre-Kindergarten through higher education. Our position is simple: No radical reform of American higher education, no successful education reform. The radical reform of higher education, we contend, is most likely to occur in the crucible of significant, serious, sustained, active engagement with public schools and their communities. Splendid abstract, contemplative, inner-ivory-tower isolation will neither shed intellectual light nor produce positive democratic change. We strongly agree with the Chilean sociologist Eugenio Tironi that the answer to the question "What kind of education do we need?" is to be found in the answer to the question "What kind of society do we want?" (Tironi, 2005). Education and society are dynamically interactive and interdependent. If human beings hope to maintain and develop a particular type of society, they must develop and maintain the particular type of education system conducive to it. Stated directly, no effective democratic schooling system, no democratic society.

Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 2022

Emerging Perspectives on Community Schools and the Engaged University

The chapter describes the university-assisted community school approach developed by Penn's N... more The chapter describes the university-assisted community school approach developed by Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships with its school and community partners since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community partners, and helps solve locally-manifested, universal problems such as health inequities and unequal education. Academically-based community service is presented as a core strategy for engaging the Penn's academic resources with the schools and community. Penn's evolution towards becoming a democratic anchor institution is discussed to highlight the importance of engaging the full resources (academic and economic) of the university in community partnerships. Providing concrete examples from nearly 35 years of work, the authors argue that university-assisted communit...

Springer eBooks, Dec 15, 2015

The compelling, important, and innovative idea of “university-assisted community schools” origina... more The compelling, important, and innovative idea of “university-assisted community schools” originated at the University of Pennsylvania. Today it is an advanced, international exemplar. The main ideas merit attention and scale-up. For example, universities and other higher education institutions located in challenging urban neighborhoods and rural places have important resources to offer local children, families, communities, schools, and neighborhood organizations, starting with their talented faculty and highly energetic and creative students. These resources position these higher education institutions to serve as anchors and hubs for the kinds of complex, multi-faceted innovations needed to improve community outcomes, as well as mutually beneficial outcomes for the higher education institutions doing this important work. Starting in the mid 1980s, the leader-authors of this chapter and their school and community partners seized this idea and then rolled up their sleeves to make it happen. For example, they pioneered and scaled-up important innovations such as academically-based community service—where professors teach their courses in local community schools and other community settings—while also demonstrating how higher education institutions and leaders of research universities in particular can become transformational agents for beneficial social change. This chapter describes the journey toward this advanced exemplar, including the development of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the growth of the international network of university-assisted community schools, and the several awards that nominate this model as an international exemplar.

Higher Learning Research Communications, 2016

In the rapidly accelerating global era in which we now live, human beings must solve a vast array... more In the rapidly accelerating global era in which we now live, human beings must solve a vast array of unprecedently complex problems. Perhaps the most complex and significant problems facing society today are persistent, widening, and increasingly destructive social, economic, and political inequality; globally destructive, man-made climate change; and increasingly frequent and savage terrorist acts. Given their proclaimed dedication to critical intelligence, and their unique constellation of formidable resources to develop it, institutions of higher education, we submit, have a unique responsibility to help solve these problems—indeed all the problems intensified by globalization.

Research for The Road Half Traveled began early in 2009, but this report has a much longer gestat... more Research for The Road Half Traveled began early in 2009, but this report has a much longer gestation. The Democracy Collaborative was founded in 2000 by a group of scholars at the University of Maryland, College Park, who saw the need for a center that could promote engaged scholarship that linked research to democratic practice. Maryland itself is a land-grant university, so the Collaborative has seen as one of its goals to examine what being a land-grant institution means in the 21st century. In 2005, The Democracy Collaborative published an article outlining its engagement vision. Later, in 2007, the Collaborative produced a full report titled Linking Colleges to Communities: Engaging the University for Community Development. Several dozen people participated in interviews for that report and their contributions helped frame the questions of this study. In Linking Colleges, we outlined the history of university engagement and examined recent developments in policy and in the field, but with limited detail on any one school. Here, we wanted to examine fewer schools in greater depth, thereby enabling us to personally visit every school we selected-and helping us to generate a better understanding of both the challenges and opportunities for universities that seek to develop and realize an anchor institution mission. There are numerous other influences, but two are particularly important to mention. One is the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, which produced its Anchor Institutions Toolkit in March 2008 to provide a manual for universities seeking to expand their community partnership work in a responsible way. Report author Rita Axelroth hails from the Netter Center and thus brings an inside perspective to this work on how community partnership centers function. A second influence is the Anchor Institutions Task Force, a group created in December 2008 to advise incoming U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan on how the federal government might leverage the intellectual and economic resources of universities to better conditions in low-income communities. Both authors participated in the Task Force and in writing its report. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Ira Harkavy and the two-dozen original members of the Task Force. Ted Howard, Executive Director of The Democracy Collaborative, has played a key role in framing the Democracy Collaborative's research. Financial support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Kendeda Fund made this project possible. In conducting this study, we relied on the good will and contributions of literally hundreds of individuals. A full list of interview subjects and their affiliations is included in Appendix B. For interviews on the "university" side of the community-university partnership equation, we relied on having contact people who could help coordinate our site visits. Steve Dubb did the site interviews at Emory, Penn, and Yale and gratefully acknowledges the extraordinary logistical assistance and scheduling efforts of Sam Marie Engle at Emory, Joann Weeks at Penn, and Michael Morand at Yale. Rita Axelroth conducted the site visits at Cincinnati, IUPUI, LeMoyne-Owen, Miami Dade College, Minnesota, Portland State, and Syracuse. She gratefully viii • Acknowledgements acknowledges the remarkable coordination and communication efforts of Mary Stagaman at Cincinnati, Starla Officer at IUPUI, Jeffrey Higgs at the LeMoyne-Owen CDC, Joshua Young at Miami Dade, Irma McClaurin at Minnesota, Amy Spring at Portland State, and Marilyn Higgins at Syracuse. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of the following individuals who reviewed sections of the report and provided critical feedback.

The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa, 2021

Principal Leadership, Oct 1, 2011

Peabody Journal of Education, 2013

This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed ... more This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed at the University of Pennsylvania with its school and community partners in West Philadelphia since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community institutions and groups, and helps solve the myriad problems schools and community confront in a rapidly changing world. Building on Dewey's ideas, the authors argue that all colleges and universities should make solving the problem of the American schooling system a very high institutional priority; their contributions to its solution should count heavily both in assessing their institutional performance (by themselves and others) and be a critical factor when responding to their requests for renewed or increased resources and financial support. Providing concrete examples from over 20 years of work in West Philadelphia, as well as from initiatives across the country, this article explores the potential of developing university-assisted community schools as an effective approach for school reform, pre-Kindergarten through higher education. Our position is simple: No radical reform of American higher education, no successful education reform. The radical reform of higher education, we contend, is most likely to occur in the crucible of significant, serious, sustained, active engagement with public schools and their communities. Splendid abstract, contemplative, inner-ivory-tower isolation will neither shed intellectual light nor produce positive democratic change. We strongly agree with the Chilean sociologist Eugenio Tironi that the answer to the question "What kind of education do we need?" is to be found in the answer to the question "What kind of society do we want?" (Tironi, 2005). Education and society are dynamically interactive and interdependent. If human beings hope to maintain and develop a particular type of society, they must develop and maintain the particular type of education system conducive to it. Stated directly, no effective democratic schooling system, no democratic society.

Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 2022

Emerging Perspectives on Community Schools and the Engaged University

The chapter describes the university-assisted community school approach developed by Penn's N... more The chapter describes the university-assisted community school approach developed by Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships with its school and community partners since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community partners, and helps solve locally-manifested, universal problems such as health inequities and unequal education. Academically-based community service is presented as a core strategy for engaging the Penn's academic resources with the schools and community. Penn's evolution towards becoming a democratic anchor institution is discussed to highlight the importance of engaging the full resources (academic and economic) of the university in community partnerships. Providing concrete examples from nearly 35 years of work, the authors argue that university-assisted communit...