Parent engagement is one approach to decrease the opportunity gap for Black, American Indian, and all children of color. This report from the field describes the use of the World Café participatory approach to support parent engagement in five early childhood, culturally embedded Montessori programs. Serving the Whole Child (SWC) is a…

The Parent Leadership Institute (PLI) of Children's Aid (CA), funded via a 2013 Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant operated between the 2014-15 through 2018-19 school years. Key goals of the PLI included: (1) improving the capacity of parents to effectively engage in the school community in support of their child; and (2) increasing…

This brief is part of a series that shares findings from a research collaboration between the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) focused on understanding implementation of the community school model in the district. Community schools aim to address students'…

Youth service providers recognize that involving families in children's learning is critical to academic achievement and overall healthy development. Yet youth service providers face ongoing challenges engaging families in out-of-school time programs. The authors, administrators of a nationally recognized youth development program, share their…

This interim progress report provides a look at Turnaround Arts schools in their first year, including: (1) a summary of the evaluation design and research questions; (2) a preliminary description of strategies used to introduce the arts in Turnaround Arts schools; and (3) a summary of school reform indicators and student achievement data at…

This report synthesizes findings and draws lessons about the implementation and results of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB") based primarily on two longitudinal studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Progress to date suggests that "NCLB's" ambitious goal of having 100 percent of U.S.…

We examined variables associated with treatment engagement in a real-world therapeutic setting. The model of care examined involved school-linked mental health care for children and their families in a rural county. Service utilization characteristics, as well as child- and treatment-specific variables were examined in relation to their impact on…

This report presents findings on the implementation of parental choice options from the first year of the National Longitudinal Study of "No Child Left Behind" (NLS-"NCLB") and the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under "No Child Left Behind" (SSI-"NCLB"). The report uses…

Chapin Hall has been conducting an implementation and evaluability study of the ECCI (Early Childhood Cluster Initiative) project since the midway point of its first year. As described in the authors' first report (Spielberger & Goyette, 2006), the initiative made considerable progress in its initial year, particularly in implementing the…

State mandates in Kentucky, Oregon, Mississippi, and Tennessee have raised questions concerning multiage grouping's viability. Some educators are implementing multiage classrooms and schools with insufficient forethought, planning, and stakeholder participation. A recent study underlines the importance of teacher readiness, parental involvement,…

This paper explores the familiar issue of parental (non-)involvement in schools. More specifically, it examines the language of selected texts in one school context and finds initially that the roles of parents are not discursively constructed in these texts as their being involved in the school. Rather, a close reading of the texts' discourse…

The Parent Involvement Program (PIP) was designed to promote the active and continuing participation of individual parents in the education of their children, as well as a partnership with the schools their children attend. An evaluation of PIP focused on its planning and implementation and determined the program's effectiveness in meeting its…

School administrators must determine that change objectives are met and positively influence students, teachers, staff, and community. Principals who include entire staff in all change phases will increase teacher confidence and trust. Encouraging parents to be involved in committee work will give them the same feelings of ownership that teachers…

A model program was designed and implemented to effectively develop and maintain communication skills in the children of an urban K-6 school. The goals of the program were to reverse a trend in under-achievement in five academic areas, to identify and develop potential in communication skills in two targeted groups of children, to create staff…

This article discusses the design and implementation of a grassroots culturally and linguistically sensitive program designed to promote the pursuit of higher education among Latino youth. Latinos en Camino al Exito Universitario is an example of a culturally responsive program delivered out of a university counseling center as part of the…