The Midwest Expansion of the Child-Parent Center Education Program (MCPC) is a pre-K to 3rd grade intervention program aimed at improving economically disadvantaged children's school success by enhancing continuity in instruction and increasing parental involvement. Opened in Chicago in the 1960s, this school reform model has undergone significant…

Every child is unique and learns in different ways. Some children are identified as needing special education services to support his or her learning at school. Parents can play a major role in shaping the services a child receives. This guidebook has been written for parents, guardians, and surrogate parents of a child (ages 3 to 21 or…

In 1997, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to pass legislation establishing an education and support program for family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care providers. This article describes the Minnesota Family, Friend and Neighbor Grant Program and findings from an evaluation of the programs and a curriculum scan of materials used in…

This report presents findings from the two-year Minnesota Family Literacy and School Readiness study. It provides information on the impacts of participating Family Literacy programs and on the first and second cohorts of children (and their families) enrolled in these programs. The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation provided the Amherst H.…

Background: To achieve high participation rates and a representative sample, active parent consent procedures require a significant investment of study resources. The purpose of this article is to describe processes and outcomes of utilizing active parent consent procedures with sixth-grade students from urban, ethnically diverse, economically…

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…

The Family Resource Coalition of America (FRCA) and the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice convened a meeting of evaluators, policymakers, and program practitioners to discuss the issue of evaluation in the field of family support. The goal was to bring together those who were implementing programs, evaluating programs, and…

In recent years, many policy makers, including officials in the Federal Government and the National Governors' Association, have advocated public school choice as the answer to the problems of public education. In 1987, Minnesota was the first state to pass legislation implementing a statewide, interdistrict, open enrollment plan for public…

The Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program is a statewide parent education and support program for all families in Minnesota with children between birth and kindergarten. This document describes the program evaluation procedures and contains forms related to the evaluation. The program evaluation uses a multi-level approach incorporating…

Project SAIL (Student Advocates Inspire Learning) is a Title IV-C Project located in Hopkins, Minnesota, designed to prevent students from dropping out of school by keeping them successfully involved in the mainstream environment. This study presents a review of other dropout prevention approaches, describes the intervention strategies involved in…

Objectives of the Title IV Indian Education Program were designed to meet the educational needs of the Native American students within the public school as defined by Federal program regulations. During the 1976-77 school year, the Parent Committee hired a Home/School Coordinator, the only staff position in the program. The Coordinator was to…

Discusses the assessment of the impact of parent involvement in the Head Start Family Impact Project. This project was undertaken with cooperation from the Parents in Community Action (PICA) component of the Hennepin County, Minnesota, Head Start Program. (BB)

The report describes evaluation activities of Minnesota's PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Education Rights) Center's "Parents Helping Parents" Program and the "COUNT ME IN" Project. Section 1 focuses on "Parents Helping Parents," a program to make parents more effective advocates for their children and to…

The purpose of this report is to provide information about the effectiveness of the Southeast Alternatives program. Major findings indicate that decentralization of the governance in the program has been accomplished through the establishment of representative advisory/governance groups; these groups have brought more, and different, people closer…

Describes two Head Start projects designed to make the transition from preschool to kindergarten less stressful for Head Start children and their families. Programs are the Mille Lacs Reservation Head Start program in Minnesota and the East Coast Migrant Head Start project in Fort Pierce, Florida. Project evaluations are summarized. (BB)