An energetic staff member from the Chicago Academy of Sciences created a Chicago Goes Back to School committee composed of local members of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education including United Airlines, the National PTA, Youth Guidance of Chicago, and others. These groups organized family involvement activities around a different theme each month of the school year. The first activity, in late August, was designed to help parents see that the "dreaded" science fair experiment can be fun and educational for parent and child.

Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., has developed several programs that coordinate the services a church can provide and that involve church members in serving the needs of the local community. In addition to adopting a local public elementary school, the church provides for a math academy for children staffed by parish volunteers, and with the neighboring Washington Hebrew Congregation co-sponsors a program for pre-adolescent boys. Through these projects, Shiloh Baptist promotes family and community involvement in support of children's learning throughout the school year. Plans are underway to expand this effort by partnering with other community and religious organizations in Washington, DC.

Spalding University, a Catholic university located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, took the message of America Goes Back to School to the university community and beyond. The university began by forming a broad-based organizing group for their back-to-school kick-off, which featured a rally complete with buttons, balloons, and cheerleaders. High school students, college students, educators, parents, and local business leaders cheered on education at the rally. In addition, local, state, and national educators spoke on the value of community involvement and the need for families and communities to develop a long-term working relationship. Spalding University has formed a unique partnership with two Catholic high schools in the city, keeping the back-to-school spirit alive year-round.

Faith communities in Jackson, Tennessee, came together in partnership to support children's learning in a very tangible way. In the third year of their program, 250 adults from 23 churches offered tutoring to 350 children each week. The program connects with the local school system through a homework hot line. Also, the faith communities have expanded the partnership to include local businesses which support and participate in the program. One of the program's founders enthusiastically champions such partnerships for their small price tag coupled with the big impact they can have on the life of a community.

Grant Park Aldersgate United Methodist Church is located in a predominantly Hispanic area in the inner city of Atlanta. To meet the unique needs of the community, Grant Park Aldersgate created the Hispanic Outreach Center. Funding for this entity comes from the church through donations, and volunteers from the United Methodist Georgia Conference partially staff the center. With programs for both Hispanic children and adults, the center provides classroom space and education materials to maintain an after-school tutorial program that meets three days a week for students in grades K-6 and to operate a weekly program that teaches English as a second language to adult Hispanic women.

An ecumenical group of religious leaders sponsored last year's "Arizona Goes Back to School." They have worked closely with public school and school board leadership on the local and state levels to organize a partnership between communities of faith and the public schools in Arizona. Religious leaders and public school advocates unveiled the new partnership with an event honoring current and retired teachers from the Phoenix area for their work with local youth. The participating teachers remarked how rarely they and their colleagues receive such an honor and what a tribute it was not only to teachers but to American education.

The local affiliates of the National Council for Jewish Women work closely with schools in their communities to identify and address barriers to more effective home-school partnerships by convening teams of parents, teachers, and community members. Out of these team meetings grow customized activities that often result in a commitment to work together to ensure that local schools are the best they can be for each and every student.

The Unitarian Universalist Society in Miami gathered prominent people in the community to serve on a panel to initiate a dialogue among parents, teachers, students, and high school counselors about the root causes of violence. This Conflict Resolution Symposium opened the doors of communication in their community on this important issue.

First and Central Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, sponsors a series of lunchtime seminars for employees of area businesses, many of which feature the importance of being involved in children's education and the ways in which working parents can do this. Building on the seminars, the church, the school system, and the businesses involved decided to start an after-school tutoring program using the church facilities. The school system trains employees of area businesses and church members to serve as tutors.

When leaders from the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America met at an America Goes Back to School meeting last year, they decided to join forces to help provide arts workshops to Detroit children and youth. Interlochen is mobilizing its substantial network of area alumni to work with students at local Boys and Girls Clubs. Alumni also will offer performances and workshops at the new Museum of African American History in conjunction with the Museum's exhibit schedule and educational programming. Interlochen plans to work with YMCAs and the Detroit Institute of Art as well.

Upon each visit, the Utah Festival Opera Company (UFOC) Educational Ensemble asks students to create an original project, such as a picture, poem, essay, costume, or set design, based on the opera program they witness. During the school year, 25 students were chosen as winners and were awarded tickets to attend a UFOC performance of their choice with their parents. At the performance, the winning students and their families received a special tour of the theater and an opportunity to meet the artists. The Ellen Eccles Theater also displayed the winning entries in the lobby for the duration of the UFOC season.

Six thousand people attended the "Oakland Goes Back to School" kick-off rally, which was planned by the city and school district of Oakland, California, to celebrate the start of a new school year and to highlight the commencement of Oakland 2000, a program to help preschool children be ready for kindergarten in the year 2000. The rally also focused attention on the district's technology plan, which includes a provision to connect all schools to the Internet, and on the development of the schools as community centers, an integral part of the city's Youth Policy Initiative.

More than 1,700 children participating in Camp Birmingham, Alabama, read over 35,000 books during the summer of 1996 as part of READ*WRITE*NOW!, an initiative of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education and now a summer component of the AMERICA READS CHALLENGE. In early September, the district held a rally to celebrate the summer's reading accomplishments and to kick off the new school year. The mayor issued a proclamation to commemorate "America Goes Back to School" week. Following the back-to-school rally, volunteers continued to sign-up, and coalitions held workshops and back-to-school seminars.

In October, 1996, the Maryland Legislators Go Back to School with the Arts campaign took 78 Maryland legislators and many other leaders into schools to experience the vital role of the arts in education. The Arts Education in Maryland Schools Consortium, a statewide partnership dedicated to advancing the cause of the arts as basic to education, initiated the campaign. Legislators and other leaders viewed a video that outlined the contribution of the arts to academic success. They also participated with students in arts activities and shared what the arts have meant in their own education and life. Photos from the visits were presented to legislators, used in publications, and displayed in the Lowe House Office Building. The legislature later approved the appropriation measure supported by the campaign organizers.