Even after children enter school, parents continue to be the most important adult influence on their lives. This booklet, directed to parents, contains more than 40 ways that parents can work with their child's school to support their child's learning. The suggestions are organized in several sections: (1) "Parent Involvement: The 3 V's,"…

Many communities across the country have set for themselves the goal of enhancing school readiness. But what does school readiness mean, and how do communities know whether they have achieved it? This research brief is intended to help communities invest wisely in school readiness initiatives. It begins by summarizing recommendations from the…

The study reviews what is known from research about school-family-community involvement programs. Collectively, recent studies and earlier research indicate a strong relationship between family involvement and improved academic performance. Family involvement is also associated with other key outcomes such as attendance and behavior, which are…

This article reviews research on mainstreaming handicapped children. Topics include methodological problems, case studies, child-child interaction, peer imitation, mainstreaming and the teacher, the family's role, and transition and follow-up. Implications for early childhood educators are listed. (Author/DB)

Examines the current state and the consequences of unemployment in Russia. Discusses those industries hardest hit and the psychological damage inflicted. Maintains that education is no protection against the loss of a job and little help in finding a new one. (MJP)

Explores the advantages of beginning or continuing a home visitation program as a method for developing positive school-home relationships. Reveals that home visitation is not widely practiced due to unavailable or uncooperative parents, lack of time, and safety concerns. Addresses strategies to overcome obstacles and program management concerns.…

Describes On Board Early, a Baltimore program designed to increase family-school experiences that support children's success. Discusses such program features as specialized family involvement staff, a parents-as-teachers program, a family-centered approach to supporting the transition to school, and planning for long-term family involvement.…

Describes an initiative that engages a teacher education program with an innovative urban "full-service" elementary school in a joint effort to serve children and families and provide a deeper and broader experience with urban education for suburban preservice teachers. Education students complete traditional and nontraditional fieldwork in the…

Discusses the assimilation of Vietnamese immigrants into U.S. life. Describes the role of the Vietnamese family and Vietnamese attitudes towards education. Stresses the role of the educator in fostering cultural diversity while preserving an ideology of freedom and acceptance in the classroom. (RW)

Reviews the literature on home-school disjunctures in language use. Argues that social inequalities are the true source of the academic failure of minority students and that attention must be given to the political link between school and society. (FMW)

Examines 12 Chicano high school students and their families in La Victoria, Colorado, to determine the social conditions that help some students to stay in school and compel others to leave. Discusses the degree of congruency between the values of school held by the school, the family, and the students. (Author/BJV)

Discusses the concept of transitions in early childhood classrooms, illustrates their usefulness for staff and children, and discusses the suitability of such activities in an early childhood program. Suggests that provision for active participation by the child, together with a planned child-centered outcome, allows transitions to be a most…

Introduces ex-teacher and author John Taylor Gatto's experiences and views on education, including contradictory patterns of family life and education in the United States, based on traditions of various immigrant groups; deleterious impacts of standardization and institutional usurpation of family functions; and conflict between the development…

Examined preschoolers' experiences with their mothers and during group reading in preschool. Concludes that the patterns of adults' and preschoolers' talk about books support a model of a home-school relationship in which mothers provide an introduction to book reading that teachers expand by engaging children in cognitively challenging…

Explores the sense in which U.S. Catholic schools can be considered a faith community by administering questionnaires to 1,204 Catholic school students. Compares attitudes and mass attendance of practicing and nonpracticing Catholics, non-Catholics, and their parents. Correlates student mass attendance with positive attitudes toward Catholic…