Parents boost STEM skills by scaffolding children's attention and discovery during play, but many need support doing so. Using human-centered design (HCD) methods, we created activity kits fostering parents' (a) involvement in and (b) valuing of parent-child play to promote preschoolers' STEM skills. Study 1 documents how HCD methods informed the…

Introduction: This article investigates an early STEM family engagement program offered during the pre-kindergarten (pre-k) year. Pre-k is an important juncture for community organizations to support children's STEM engagement and parental involvement in informal STEM learning. We evaluated a program called Teaching Together STEM, which offers a…

This article reports on and analyses a yearlong project supporting school staff to increase parental engagement with children's learning. Working with 34 schools, the project included the provision of a toolkit (information and activities) as well as opportunities for school to school learning. The project was useful for all schools, but some…

Parent engagement has been a cornerstone of Head Start since its inception in 1965. Prior studies have found evidence for small to moderate impacts of Head Start on parenting behaviors but have not considered the possibility that individual Head Start programs might vary meaningfully in their effectiveness at improving parenting outcomes. The…

Family learning means any learning that includes children and adult members of their family, and where there are outcomes for both child and adult. Learning activities may be formal or informal, and can take place in a range of contexts and venues. Good family learning experiences are characterised by well-planned programmes, with good or…

This mixed-methods case study examined two out-of-school (OST) Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs at a science-oriented high school on students' Self-Efficacy. Because STEM is a key for future innovation and economic growth, Americans have been developing a variety of approaches to increase student interest in science within…

This report describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Home Secrets Program, in which parents of Head Start through fourth-grade students are invited to work with their children at home using a packet of teacher-developed activity sheets. Packets are available for each grade level; to receive them, parents must attend…

Describes an early intervention prekindergarten program for at-risk students stressing staff unity, a curriculum rich in developmentally appropriate activities, cooperative and mastery learning techniques, collaboration with teachers in the primary grades, intense parental involvement, and a comprehensive program evaluation. (MLH)

This report describes how one school district developed a program of parent involvement in a Saturday early education program. The relationship between the home and the school is fostered primarily in two ways: through parental involvement in the Saturday School teaching team once every two months and through the home teaching visits. A crucial…

Evaluated an Even Start project in Maryland, using results from the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program for comparison. Found that participants significantly improved in their literacy skills, and that children of parents in the project were much more likely to be exposed to literacy activities such as library visits.…

Historically, the emphasis of parent involvement components in early childhood programs has been on teaching the parent to teach the child. Since the early 1980s, however, there has been a movement toward the development of support systems for families. Support activities are important for parents under stress, since stress can affect the ability…

The Child Parent Education Centers, funded through Title I of the Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965, are administered by the Chicago Board of Education in areas characterized by a high density of low-income families. Approximately 2100 children, ages three through nine, are enrolled in the 11 centers which offer up to six years of…

This document is the eleventh in a series of 12 early childhood program descriptions compiled by the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. The program described here is the Florida Parent Education program developed by Ira Gordon of the Institute for Development of Human Resources at the University of Florida in…

The report describes the Chapter 1 Migrant Education Program, implemented for eligible migrants in Wisconsin during the 1982-83 school year and following summer term to improve academic skills and meet special educational needs, and examines program effectiveness using data from annual end-of-project evaluation reports. Included are a summary…

This book describes an experimental compensatory preschool program carried out in England between 1968 and 1973. The program combined a traditional nursery program with a daily 20-minute period focusing on specific language and perceptual activities. Experimental and control subjects, 237 in all, were selected from four state supported nursery…