The study examined whether Indiana school sites having Community Education programs exhibited Community Education elements as defined by the State Plan for Indiana Community Education 1989 - 1993. Ten core elements of Community Education (collaboration, partnerships, use of volunteers, citizen involvement, lifelong learning, community resources, parental involvement, facilities usage, systematic planning, and leadership) were studied.Five research questions were developed to describe the use of Community Education elements in Indiana schools. Names and addresses of sites were obtained from school superintendents, and questionnaires designed to report the presence of the ten core elements of Community Education were sent to the sites. A weighted index was developed to measure the elements and was used to provide a score for amounts of core element activity at each site. This allowed the sites to be ranked with higher scores representing more extensive use of Community Education elements.At least 113 school sites are making efforts to implement the Community Education elements. Sites exhibiting the greatest number of the Community Education elements were located in high schools or career/vocational centers in small towns or medium-sized cities, for the most part. The majority had part-time or full-time coordinators. Sites exhibiting the fewest elements tended to be located in elementary schools in small towns or rural areas; none were in urban or suburban areas, and the majority had no coordinator.In terms of the ten core elements, most sites did not collaborate or have formal partnerships with community organizations. Most sites also did not have community councils. Less than half had any formal citizen involvement in planning and decision-making. Most sites did not consistently use systematic planning processes to make program decisions.School facilities were used for Community Education purposes during non-school hours by over 80% of the respondents. Activities most frequently provided by the sites were personal enrichment courses, high school completion/GED preparation, adult basic skills classes, and recreation. Senior citizens were the most frequently served group by the sites. About one-third of the sites provided programs for illiterate adults. The study suggests that Community Education at Indiana school sites has a much stronger program orientation than a process orientation. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of the study was to focus attention upon selected community leaders in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who influenced the formulation of educational decisions in the Fort Wayne Community Schools from January 1, 1,964 to December 31, 1972. Three other purposes of the study included: (1) clarification of influence patterns by interviewing in depth selected community leaders identified by educational leaders in the Fort Wayne Community Schools as influencing educational decisions; (2) to clarify influence patterns by interviewing in depth selected community leaders identified by other community leaders as persons influencing educational decisions in the Fort Wayne Community Schools; and (3) to identify a profile of specific traits of community leaders most influential in the process of formulation of educational decisions in the Fort Wayne Community Schools.

The purpose of the study was to determine attitudes of parents toward the Fort Wayne Community School Title I Parent Resource Center. Specifically, the study was designed to measure the quality of services extended during the first six months of Resource Center operation, January 1980 through June 1980.Literature regarding the role of parents in educational programs at both the national and state level was reviewed. Through study of the-literature, limited data were reported involving parents in program evaluation. Therefore, a study was undertaken to address parent attitudes toward program effectiveness.From a sample population of one hundred parents of children enrolled in the 1979-1980 Fort Wayne Community School Title I Project, ninety-five parents completed questionnaires delivered to homes by Title I Liaison Aides. Five parents were not available for contact during the two-day questionnaire delivery period. Completed questionnaires were placed in unmarked envelopes for return by the aides to the Parent Resource Center. Questionnaires were then delivered to the Fort Wayne Community School Computer Center for key punching and computer scoring.Responses to "yes" and "no" questionnaire items were reported in percentages addressing attitudes toward (1) Parent Resource Center location and visitation hours, (2) delivery of services and materials, (3) workshop presentations and (4) advertising techniques. Written comments expressed in two open ended questionnaire items were analyzed. Perceived benefits and need for program change were reported in narrative form.Parent attitudes toward Resource Center services revealed:1. Parent Resource Center location and visitation hours were satisfactory as reported by more than 80 percent of the respondents. However, among written comments, parents recommended decentralized or school-based centers and evening or weekend visitation hours.2. Service extended by the Parent Resource Center Staff was regarded as helpful by 94.7 percent of those queried and materials to be used in the home were clearly understood by 100 percent of the respondents.3. Workshops held at the Parent Resource Center were attended by 68.4 percent of the respondents. Further, 65 percent of Center clients attending workshops reported value in presentations and appropriateness of materials for use in the home.4. Among advertising techniques employed, parents ranked the Title I meeting as the primary information source. School newsletters, news paper articles, church announcements andparent-school personnel sharing were less frequently cited sources of information.Services extended at the Parent Resource Center had benefited children in the improvement of reading and math skills, in strengthened parent-child relationships and in provision of unaffordable educational materials.

Indianapolis / This thesis examines the evolution of the adolescent sex education during from 1907 to 1975, from the perspective of Indiana and highlights the contingencies, continuities, and discontinuities across place and time. This period represents the establishment of the defining characteristics of sex education in Indiana as locally controlled and school-based, as well as the Social Health Association’s transformation from one of a number of local social hygiene organizations to the nation’s only school based social health agency. Indiana was not a local exception to the American sex education movement, but SHA was exceptional for SHA its organizational longevity, adaptation, innovation in school-based curriculum, and national leadership in sex education. Indiana sex education leadership seems, at first glance, incongruous due to Indiana’s conservative politics. SHA’s efforts to adapt the message, curriculum, and operation in Indiana’s conservative climate helped it endure and take leadership role on a national stage. By 1975, sex education came to be defined as school based, locally controlled and based on the medicalization of health, yet this growing national consensus belied deep internal contradictions where sex education was not part of the regular school health curriculum and outside of the schools’ control. Underlying this story is fundamental difference between social hygiene and health, that hygiene is a set of practices to prevent disease, while health is an internal state to promote wellness.