A comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) is a multi-component whole-school approach designed to assist schools in targeting opportunities for students to be more physically active and help students achieve the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity (PA) each day. A CSPAP consists of five components (1) quality physical…

The transition to more formal schooling in kindergarten can be difficult for young children and their families. However, preparing children for this transition can produce positive results. This article examines the qualitative results of a four- to six-week transition program for 715 children. Data include parent and school surveys as well as…

Background: Internationally, it has been recognised that parents need to advocate for their children with disabilities to receive services. However, many parents find advocacy difficult because of systemic and logistical barriers. As such, parents of children with disabilities may seek a special education advocate to help them understand their…

The Learning Partnership (TLP) initiated a Family and Community Engagement Strategy (FACES) initiative in three Ontario communities to foster active and responsive relationships among community partners and enhanced family engagement in transitions to school. A case study research design, grounded in participatory action research, was used to…

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) have teamed up to bring you a ground-breaking policy brief that examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement. "Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement" spotlights how six…

The purpose of this manuscript is twofold: First, the authors explore the nature of the learning in which their students engaged during a service-learning experience in efforts to understand the meanings of teaching and learning they constructed, and how the context of this experience interacted with their candidates' previously constructed…

The Indian Education Programs supplement state, local, and tribal education efforts to improve the quality of Indian education and assure parental and community participation. Each year, the Office of Indian Education, assisted by the six regional Indian Education Technical Assistance Centers, selects effective projects to be showcased at the…

The U.S. Department of Education is supporting a 3-year program involving Virginia Tech's computer department and a rural public elementary school. The project seeks to determine whether immersive access to networked computing by students and their families has measurable effects on long-term student achievement. A fifth-grade classroom was…

This paper describes a school-home reading project that was developed to support culturally and linguistically diverse beginning readers, and offers practical suggestions for starting such a program. First-grade classrooms from 5 Chapter 1 schools in a large suburban school district are participating in the project. Teachers in these classrooms…

Describes a 4-year training program for Indian paraprofessionals as Social Work Aides to support Indian children--especially the handicapped--in a non-Indian school system. Reports positive program evaluations including high ratings for workshops and advocacy effectiveness, decreased absenteeism for students with advocate intervention, and…

Describes the Home Visit Initiative at Socorro Middle School in Texas. Discusses the purpose of home visits; selection of families for teacher home visits; the visiting team; parents', students', and teachers' reactions to visits, and the results of an evaluation of the home visits, especially the impact on parent volunteerism and schooling,…

This paper examines how various elements of five early- childhood-to-elementary school transition programs are being developed and carried out. Five transition programs were identified and investigated in regard to shared leadership and decisionmaking among stakeholders, comprehensive and integrated services, family involvement and empowerment,…

The Teacher-Parent Partnership for the Enhancement of School Success Project was a cooperative project involving the University of South Carolina and the Salkehatchie Consortium (a collection of 18 rural school districts). Its goal was to increase the language, mathematics, social responsibility, and expressive skills of young at-risk children…

A partnership between the College of Education of the University of South Carolina, the Salkehatchie Consortium of schools, International Business Machines, and families and schools in Allendale, South Carolina, and Estill, Denmark was formed in an effort to implement a project designed to enhance the school success of at-risk elementary school…

By expanding the school leadership team to include the school's counselors, the staff of a K-12 school successfully transformed many of their existing family-school routines into more collaborative efforts. We delineate the history of this change initiative, the goals and objectives for the change project, and the primary organizational change…