A Family Geography Night (FGN) kit can be used to bring families together, teach about the world, give parents the opportunity to share their beliefs, and participate in the educational system while having fun! Geography is an essential element of twenty-first-century education. More than just maps, geography is the interaction of cultures,…

The introduction to this Special Topic Collection has two parts. To provide background and context for the articles in the collection, Part 1 tells the story of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program at the National Center for Education Statistics. It offers an abridged history of this program and describes the designs of the two national…

Positive, healthy and happy families are the cornerstone of any healthy community. Parenting programs which address multiple aspects of family functioning are potentially the most effective means of creating positive family environments. However, the various constituents who "consume" parenting support and intervention often are not…

The 2010 edition of this monograph addresses many topics (e.g., administration of orientation programs, family involvement, student characteristics and needs, assessment, and orientation for specific student populations and institutional types) that were included in previous editions but approaches them with new information, updated data, and…

The concept of a new family coordinator (someone to orient new families to the local 4-H programs and serve as a contact person for them) is examined. The training of this coordinator, the "New Family Handbook," and benefits of this new system are discussed. (CT)

Outlines a conceptual model of parental involvement in family support programs, anchored in ecological and family systems frameworks. Proposes that parental decisions to enroll and remain in support programs are shaped by a variety of factors at different levels of influence, including individual characteristics of the parent and family, provider…

The Avon Grove School District has a middle school orientation program for incoming elementary students and their parents, which consists of several visits and open houses in the Spring and at the beginning of the Fall term. (SJL)

Young, sexually abused children should be identified and treated as early as possible. Structured and directive treatment proceeding at a regular pace achieves greater success than an unstructured, nondirective approach. Structure reduces anxiety for the children, parents, and therapists. (Author/BB)

This article describes a learning therapy structure used at the Hill Top Preparatory School that enables learning disabled young people to compensate for their deficiencies and to cope with physical, social, and emotional problems. The goal is to help them achieve academically, remain accepted and contributing members of their families, and…

Describes a program whereby foster parents, social workers, and parents are trained to help foster children increase understanding of their lives and decrease confusion about their identities. Integral to the program is the child's collecting information into a Life Story Book. (Author/DB)

The Diagnostic Mathematics Clinic at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is described. It is designed to diagnose students' mathematical learning difficulties and to provide remedial work to improve deficient skills. It is seen as an ideal setting for parental involvement in the educational process and viewed as successful and rewarding.…

This article describes an early intervention model for enhancing developmental opportunities for a child with a disability by expanding on and strengthening the parent-child relationship in a group environment. The theoretical underpinnings and components of the Parents Interacting with Infants model are discussed, along with practice indicators…

This paper provides an overview of the Home-School Knowledge Exchange Project and an introduction to this special issue on home-school knowledge exchange. The paper starts by situating the project within a number of contexts--those of UK educational research, national and international interest in home-school relationships, national and local…

While parent education has become popular among educators and reformers, the long-term implications of the emphasis on parent education deserve careful and dispassionate examination. Are exclusively center-based developmental programs for preschool children to be discredited? Should federally-sponsored intervention programs insist on parent…

This program overview discusses the aims and organization of the Preschool Correspondence Program (PSCP) in Queensland, Australia, accenting the development of the Correspondence Unit within the Preschool Education Division of the Queensland Department of Education. Four functions of preschool education, conditions seen to be necessary for the…