This article summarizes an evaluation of the Safe Babies Court Teams Project. The study compared children in the Court Teams Project at the four initial sites (n = 298) with a nationally representative sample of young child welfare participants (n = 511) from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). The Court Teams Project…

Within the development studies framework, empowerment involves increasing individual agency vis-à-vis the formal and informal opportunity structure. The Open Society Foundation's Early Childhood Programme developed the Getting Ready for School programme specifically for parents of preschool-age children to use at home in the year before school to…

Interventions that aim to promote social competence, reduce problem behavior, and improve school climate are common at all levels of schooling. This whole-school focus, coupled with researchers' concerns about contamination or spillover effects in evaluations that randomly assign classrooms or students to conditions, as well as advances in…

This report presents an evaluation of the Prichard Committee for Excellence's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, which trains Kentucky parents as informed advocates for educational excellence. The evaluation examined whether Institute training would increase parents' understanding of education reform and willingness to work for…

Presents an overview of the intervention program and the results of the research project evaluating the effectiveness of the program. Parent participants in the course when compared with delayed treatment control group parents, showed an increased ability to use decision making facilitation skills in responding to typical child statements.…

Criticizes Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) for its emphasis on one-sided techniques in the parent-child relationship and its tendency to reduce complex problems to simplistic formulas. P.E.T.'s central metaphor of parent-as-therapist is identified and found wanting. Issues have applicability to the parent education movement in general.…

A literature review on treatment of physically abused children and physically abusive parents is presented. A variety of treatments is documented, with the most popular for children being therapeutic daycare emphasizing improving developmental skills. Although most programs demonstrated some improvement with treatment, many included no or very…

Describes a number of parent education programs available through books, classes, and workshops. Review suggests no one best way has emerged as the best for conducting parent education groups, although all researchers report a successful parent-group experience. (JAC)

Qualitative methods were used to examine the dynamics underlying reported benefits and outcomes of parent education. Findings suggest that the program can lead to significant, transformative learning and enhanced personal empowerment. Group format can provide social support to isolated parents. Overall experience can result in deeper understanding…

The Minnesota Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program is a voluntary public school family support and education program for parents of children from birth to kindergarten, and is offered in 360 school districts and the four tribal schools. An evaluation was conducted to learn what types of immediate outcomes could be expected for…

This guide assists public and private agencies in establishing family support programs for low-income families. The guide is based on the experience of two projects, Child Survival/Fair Start for Children (1982-89) and High/Scope Parent-to-Parent Dissemination Project (1979-84). Chapter 1 defines family support programs and describes their common…

This document is the first of a series of four developed to provide a comprehensive overview of parent involvement, encompassing the family, parenting needs, and existing resources, in addition to current parent education approaches and practices. This "Overview" is a panoramic scan of Parent involvement programs, including child-rearing…