The Public Policy and Public Schools Program was developed to educate urban, low-income parents about the administration, curriculum, organization, legal structure, and finances of their children's schools. The program has increased parental involvement in local boards of education, school committees, and advocacy groups. Sample program activities…

The experience of the school-choice program in Alum Rock (California) illustrates how a determined effort to reach all parents and provide them with information about choices and programs can have a reasonable degree of success. Parental information is essential in avoiding inequities of opportunity. (SLD)

Describes Project LOWELL, a K-8 bilingual education program developed by Lowell (MA) Public Schools to cope with the dramatic influx of Southeast Asian pupils since 1979. Discusses five project areas: instruction, curriculum development and coordination, staff development and training, parent and community involvement, and dissemination. Issues of…

Presents profiles of the Parent-Teacher Action Research projects of seven schools in the national reform network, the League of Schools Reaching Out, and one in Spain. Each school is carrying out a family and community involvement project, and each has an action research team to collect information on program effects. (SLD)

Describes a collaborative project between California State University, Los Angeles, and an urban elementary school that fostered conditions for parent involvement in the school and home-school cooperation. Workshops, English classes, and a parent mentor program were features of the successful effort. (SLD)

Describes the Family Math program for elementary school students and their families in Springfield (Massachusetts). Goals include the following: (1) increase minority parent participation; (2) overcome math anxiety; and (3) encourage mathematics participation. (FMW)