Effective transitions to kindergarten engage families and ease children into new environments. Countdown to Kindergarten (CTK), a program in a southeastern U.S. state that serves more than 1,000 children each year and is grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, partners kindergarten teachers and families to facilitate effective…

Although many studies make important contributions to understanding the process and outcomes of school-based parent involvement initiatives, more work needs to be done to measure parent perceptions of parent involvement practices, policies, and barriers in low SES schools serving minority students. This qualitative case study looked to identify…

The paper begins with a challenge, namely: How do we work with families and communities to co-create the next generation of family and community engagement, providing equitable learning pathways--both in and out of school and from birth to young adulthood--that will enable all children to be successful in the 21st century? Exploring what it takes…

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive preschool to third grade prevention program for the goals of sustaining services at a large scale. The Midwest Child-Parent Center (CPC) Expansion is a multilevel collaborative school reform model designed to improve school achievement and parental involvement from ages…

The second (containing chapters 6 through 10) of a two-volume series on bilingual handicapped students continues with a review of research. Parent involvement, education, and training in bilingual special education are considered in terms of the state of the American family and problems associated with handicapping conditions in bilingual…

The Kennedy Children's Room and Family Center Program was developed by the joint endeavors of faculty from West Virginia University and personnel at the Kennedy Center Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown, West Virginia. Goals are (1) to develop and implement a model training program which focuses on fostering and enhancing effective…

This guide has been prepared to assist Chapter 1 staff in planning and strengthening a successful home-school partnership. Ten basic essentials of successful program development are listed with supplementary detail: review public law, build a commitment, provide for coordination, assess needs and strengths, utilize available resources, plan,…

The TEEM Implementation of Parent Involvement (T.I.P.I.) is a checklist of various aspects of parent involvement found in TEEM's 19 Follow Through communities. The checklist is not to be used for evaluation but rather to describe the implementation of the parent involvement program and provide a way of determining needs for future parent training.…

Establishes some basic planning strategies for creating and maintaining an effective parent program. A 60-item School/Partnership Inventory was administered in two school districts, and problems were identified in 23 areas covered by this instrument. Differences in parents' perceptions of the school-home linkages in the sample studies were based…

Nurturing children's passionate interest in writing increases the chances that they will incorporate writing into their lifestyles. Educators can help children in their journey toward success by creating a positive professional attitude about writing in school, allowing substantial time for writing, providing opportunities to become immersed in a…

Describes a program being carried out by the Faculte des Sciences Psycho-pedagogiques, Universite de l'Etat a Mons, in which controlled intervention is made to identify handicaps imposed by the social environment on education and to pinpoint the most efficient educational methods, focusing on how the project affects family-school cooperation.…

Describes an approach used in Ramsey County, Minnesota to improve quality of family day care. (CM)

A SURVEY OF PRACTICES OF SCHOOLS IN TYPICALLY DEPRESSED URBAN AREAS FROM FOUR LARGE CITIES IS PRESENTED. STAFFING AND PROGRAM PLANNING ARE DISCUSSED. PRACTICES SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED TO HELP PARENTS LEARN HOW TO PARTICIPATE MEANINGFULLY IN THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN. IN PREPARING THE PRESCHOOL CHILD, PARENT AID MAY BE ENLISTED THROUGH…

Since 1987 schools in Baltimore (Maryland) have been working with the Fund for Educational Excellence and the education research center at Johns Hopkins University to develop comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships. To understand better how these schools are building and improving their partnership programs, administrators,…

Analyzed data from a 1996 end-of-the-year survey that updated information on schools in the National Network of Partnership Schools, which was designed to build comprehensive programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Results indicated that five ingredients were crucial for partnership success: active and supportive action teams,…