For many young gifted English Language Learners (ELLs), going to an American school is like a trip to Mars. Everything and everyone looks strange. Many ELLs feel unsure of their abilities when they discover that their proficiency in English can sometimes hinder achievement. They wonder what the other kids think of their speech, their accents,…

Recent research has confirmed that parental involvement in education is positively associated with student achievement, yet further efforts are needed to measure the effects of such programs systematically so as to inform the development of improved methods. Having parents help their children with mathematics can be problematic. Teachers may not…

Stacy Kane Greenzeig knows that being the parent of a child with special needs is a difficult, time consuming, emotionally draining, and a selfless job. As the mother of a son with disabilities, she has faced the challenges first hand and learned quickly that researching treatments, visiting doctors' offices, and working to help her child in any…

"The Achiever" is a monthly newsletter designed expressly for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. Highlights of this issue include: (1) New Legislation Promises More Choices for Low-income Families; (2) A Look at Three Schools Reaching for "No Child…

Parents are an essential component in their children's SAT success, says Starlett Craig, director of outreach and enrichment programs at Clemson University in South Carolina. Clemson is home to a successful two-week SAT summer camp, where students are immersed in workshops that prepare them for the exam. But whether a child goes to a SAT camp or…

Because many parents are beginning to recognize the need for improvement in family communication, a lecture-forum program presented in the South Louisiana area encompasses the skill of listening to children. Defining communication as any behavior that carries a message that is perceived by someone else, the program explores the difference between…

This document describes the FAMILY MATH course which has been developed to teach parents how to help their children learn mathematics. The goals of the program are to: (1) provide parents with activities to help their children with mathematics at home; (2) provide parents with information about the importance of mathematics in future schooling and…

This article describes a workshop for parents and middle school students that clarifies an appropriate role for using hand-held technology in learning mathematics. (Contains 3 figures.)

This compendium provides 73 programmatic approaches for involving parents in their children's education. These strategies demonstrate the broad range of ways in which principals and teachers communicate with parents and work to help them support their children's learning. The strategies are organized into six categories. The first is home-school…

Descriptions of several programs of the Shawnee Hills Community Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center, Inc. (Charleston, West Virginia) are presented. Included in this document are: (1) a description of the Shawnee Hills Day Training Center, a cooperative program of Shawnee Hills and several county school boards for severely/profoundly impaired…

Originally designed as a drug abuse prevention program for drug-abusing parents and their children, the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) has developed into a family-change program. Presented in 14 2-hour-long, consecutive weekly sessions, SFP has two versions: for elementary school children and their parents and for parents and youth 10-14…