This theme issue includes six articles about nurturing parent and community involvement in schools, particularly schools serving Hispanic, immigrant, or economically disadvantaged students. "Thinking about Learning: The Community and Academic Standards" (Oanh H. Maroney, Aurelio M. Montemayor) describes a Corpus Christi (Texas) project…

A study examined whether storybook exposure and the amount of teaching in reading and writing skills provided by parents would enhance the language skills and emergent literacy of 47 first-grade children. Hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for parents' print exposure, and children's age and analytical intelligence showed that at the…

This study investigated language attitudes and Japanese language maintenance among a group of second-generation Japanese in Melbourne (Australia). Subjects were 66 Japanese high school students (second-generation) attending Japanese-language schools and 109 Japanese mothers (first-generation) self-identified as Japanese-identity,…

In response to the National Education Goals panel's recognition of the role that parents can have in children's learning and school performance, the "Survey on Family and School Partnerships in Public Schools K-8" was conducted to determine the ways schools are engaging parents in their children's education and the extent to which…

This article describes the implementation of the cooperative development (CD) technique by two professors at a Japanese university. With this technique, colleagues work together by adopting the roles of "speaker" and "understander" to support each other's process of addressing teaching concerns. The skills required for CD…

This annotated bibliography lists available resources that address many issues involved in population education. Entries are categorized into three parts. Part I, "Population Education," consists of titles on various aspects of population education arranged by country in the first section and by general materials in the second section.…

Essays on language contact and the image of language, entirely in French, include: "Representations 'du' contexte et representations 'en' contexte? Eleves et enseignants face a l'apprentissage de la langue" ("Representations 'of' Context or Representations 'in' Context? Students and Teachers Facing Language Learning" (Laurent…

As the preschool and early years of schooling were becoming the focus of increasing attention, the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department commissioned a review of United Kingdom and international literature on the use of early intervention schemes for disadvantaged students. The resulting review presents evidence on the most appropriate…

This book presents a variety of perspectives on career development for women that grew from an extensive study of high school students in 1980 with follow-ups in 1990 and 1993. "Theoretical Overview: The Longitudinal Study" (Helen S. Farmer) outlines the social learning theoretical framework underlying the study and describes study procedures,…

A study of social and cultural factors that affect the appropriateness of verbal expressions in different languages focuses on the comparative uses of three common expressions ("thank you, I'm sorry, excuse me" and their equivalents) in English and Chinese. First, the usage patterns of the three expressions are explained briefly, and the…

This study examined children's perceptions of child-rearing norms and values of the culture where the child is raised and provides a cross-cultural comparison of child development in India, Kenya, and Sweden. Children ages 8 through 13 in Kenya were asked questions regarding good and bad behavior and parents' sanctions, the results of which were…

Some of the progress in the ways researchers and educators think about and work to improve school, family, and community partnerships is reviewed. This paper summarizes information that emerged from the first phase of a study of family influence and family-school-community connections of four ethnic groups in the Boston (Massachusetts) area. Each…

This book presents updated research on and examples of teacher leadership, offering practical tips for educators at all levels, tools for self-assessment, and a new vision of the future. The eight chapters are: (1) "What Is Teacher Leadership?" (e.g., definition of teacher leadership, roles for teacher leaders, and who is responsible); (2)…

Within the framework of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), a collaborative effort was made by a large number of industrialized countries to get insight into the level of literacy of their adult populations. In the Netherlands, older adults (918 out of 3,090 respondents) were over sampled to get insight into their specific literacy…

This report highlights some of the projects supported by the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) Branch of the Center for Research for Mothers and Children at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development since its last report in January 1997. The MRDD Branch provides support for research, research training,…