The cultural competence of 13 parenting education programs for Latino families with young children was examined in this study. Based on our analyses, we make several recommendations for improving the cultural competence and effectiveness of parenting education programs for Latino families with young children. Specifically, we recommend the…

Education leaders across the country confront a growing challenge: too many students are not college ready when they leave high school. Although indicators exist to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school, few indicators of students' college readiness are currently in place, and few districts have linked indicators to practices…

This article details a strategic planning model and concurrent 3-year research study focusing on the benefits of preK-16 professional development school learning communities for the participating preK-16 educational leaders in a midwestern school-university partnership network. Results of the study, along with the strategic plan's success at…

Noting that the transition from preschool to kindergarten presents many challenges to children, families, and teachers, presents a preschool-to-kindergarten planning transition model. The goal of the model is to provide a strategy that assists children, teachers, and families to establish and implement a collaborative transition process. Five…

This bulletin describes a first-grade "readiness program" developed at the Aumsville (Oregon) School District to help children who have been found to be at risk in a standard first-grade program. These students attend a readiness first grade designed to assist their development emotionally, socially, physically, and academically and only…

This report provides practitioners in the field of child and family services with important guidelines on early childhood education and family support programs including program design, community collaboration, funding, and staff management. The book presents the five main components of establishing an early childhood education and family support…

Conceived as a state-supported community-sponsored program for families, strengthened by business and service organization support, and designed to work with local educational, child care, and social service agencies, Washington State's Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP, pronounced e-cap) provides a "whole child"…

In 1986 the National Governors' Association defined the following areas of educational policy targeted for improvement: (1) leadership and management; (2) teaching; (3) parent involvement and choice; (4) readiness; (5) technology; (6) school facilities; and (7) college quality. In addition to profiling new state initiatives in each of these seven…

This report outlines the national and state environmental context for the SECCS Initiative in supporting MCH strategic planning in early childhood systems building. This strategic context has implications for roles, relationships, and activities within a planning process and ultimately an implementation process. It summarizes the opportunities and…