Parent involvement in the education of their children can help students become more successful in school. A three-step approach, involving parent motivation of students, parent participation in school functions, and parent-teacher communication, can generate positive relationships and foster interaction among all segments of the educational…

Examines variation in the methods used to assign students to classrooms and teachers in a small but highly diversified sample of elementary schools. Gives explicit attention to parental influence on pupil assignments as well as to effects of having an unusually incompetent or excellent teacher at a particular grade level. (NH)

Discusses the possible relationships between family socialization agents and gender schemata. Focuses on the interplay of the two types of family variables--distal and proximal--and gender schemata. Distal variables discussed are: (1) socioeconomic level; (2) ethnicity; (3) intact versus one-parent families; (4) maternal employment and sibling…

Identifies how divorce affect's children's classroom performance and offers suggestions and resource list for teachers. Particulary discussed are four most common characteristics of children experiencing divorce and teacher's role in promoting an empathetic teacher-student relationship. (DST)

Reviews factors that may impede the delivery of useful and appropriate diagnostic-intervention services to rural disabled children. Discusses rural parent, educator, school, and community factors as well as state and national policies that must be considered to ensure the provision of quality services to rural students. (JHZ)

Examines 200 Barbadian parents' and 100 teachers' perceptions of restrictive and coercive strategies for students taking the Common Entrance Examination. Generally, parents were significantly less likely than teachers to view the strategies as undesirable and/or counter-productive. Implications for parents as a potential educational reform…

Categorizes motor, emotional reaction, social, and academic tasks that will enable parents to assess a child's educational readiness for school. Provides a parent self-rating scale to assess standing as a reading role model for children and a checklist to rate how conducive the home environment may be to school achievement. (NEC)

Path analysis of data collected on fifth grade boys indicated that mothers' educational expectations were strongly related to sons' academic performance. Results were related to a model which conceptualized two classes of parental behaviors as determining children's academic achievement: instigating behaviors and responsive behaviors. (Author/DST)

The behavior of children from a wide range of family backgrounds was observed in elementary school classrooms several years after program services had been delivered. The results indicated that program participants benefited, particularly in the area of academic learning behavior. (Author/BW)

Presents an overview of a developmental structuralist model based on integration of psychoanalytic and Piagetian developmental psychology. Includes discussion of patterns and insights from a clinical-descriptive intervention study of multirisk families and suggests lines for future research. (RH)

Like the family, the schools may be viewed as a self-contained social system with a unique organization and unique patterns of expectations that are binding on its members. The article reviews why it is becoming increasingly difficult for the school to stand in as surrogate for the family. (MH)

Investigated the relationship of self-concept, parental influence, race, sex, and socioeconomic status to occupational aspirations and expectations and career maturity in 259 10th graders. Black students seemed to have aspirations and expectations similar to whites but less career maturity. Parent influence was an important predictor for all…

Eric Jensen, a leading expert in the translation of brain research into education, argues that students' achievement capacity is greatly underappreciated. Drawing from a wide range of neuroscience research as well as related studies, the author reveals that the human brain is far more dynamic and malleable than earlier believed. He offers a…

This study estimates the effect of maternal education on birth outcomes using data from the Vital Statistics Natality files for 1970 to 1999. It also assesses the importance of four potential channels through which maternal education may improve birth outcomes: use of prenatal care, smoking behavior, marriage, and fertility. In an effort to…

Adolescence involves multiple academic changes and increased challenges with potential dramatic effects on student motivation and learning. This chapter focuses on the influence of one motivational process, perceived self-efficacy. The chapter provides background information on self-efficacy related to the larger theoretical framework of human…