The federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, project strives to equalize low-income students' access to higher education by increasing their participation in rigorous coursework, providing expanded opportunities for low-income students and parents to learn about postsecondary educational opportunities…

Too often special education services are provided in a piece-by-piece fashion with individual support staff members each scheduling service to the child once or twice a week. Travel time and case-load numbers prohibit getting significant service time and frequency to the student. The literature suggests that transdisciplinary service delivery is…

The focus of this primer is to explain Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) and Early Intervening Services as they pertain to parents and children who are at risk for academic and behavioral problems, explaining changes to special education law and how parents should be involved in each process. Emphasis on early intervening services allows action…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates parent-professional collaboration. But difficulties between parent and professional collaboration seem to persist. These difficulties do not seem to be related to a lack of mutual respect or lack of good intentions. Perhaps difficulties exist because of a lack of common ground.…

Homework is assigned on the assumption that parents or other elder members have the capacity to assist the pupils and that home environment is conducive for the pupil to do homework. A cross-sectional survey using structured and semi-structured interviews was conducted among pupils and parents in Kengeleni division in Mombasa district to explore…

The "Every Child Matters" agenda places emphasis on the need for parents/carers and families to work in partnership with schools. At the heart of this is the importance of a shared definition of family learning that values parents as equal partners. The extent to which schools are responsible for putting government policy into practice…

Preparing the next generation of global citizens is a daunting challenge. Leaders across the nation agree that young people today need to become lifelong learners with specific competencies to identify and solve problems, utilize resources wisely, organize and manage information systems, communicate effectively in several languages, generate new…

Much has been written about the poor representation of culturally diverse students in gifted education, centering on factors such as identification criteria, referral practices, student interests, and parental concerns. Culturally diverse learners--especially those who are gifted--are often left out of programs that may ultimately contribute to…

Many intervention programs use home visiting to target enhanced parent-child interactions; however, few studies have examined specific intervention strategies, limiting the potential utility of evaluation results to guide practice, research, or policy effectively. In this paper, we recommend that researchers and program evaluators open the "black…

Increased parent school involvement is associated with better academic outcomes; yet, proximal contributors to this effect remain understudied. We focus on one potential proximal contributor, youth's positive and negative future self-images or "possible selves," reasoning that if parent school involvement fosters possible selves, then…

The relative contribution of domain-specific and non-domain-specific activities to the development of soccer expertise was examined using a retrospective cross-sectional design. Elite and sub-elite players aged between 9 and 18 years of age completed a participation history questionnaire under supervision. Weekly and accumulated hours spent in…

In this article, the author presents a discussion regarding the sharing of decision making regarding curriculum in preschool. The preschool where she teaches is housed in a diverse, faith-based elementary school in the heart of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a midsize, midwestern city. It offers full-day, half-day, and two-and-a-half-hour preschool…

This article discusses the challenges to engaging families in secondary schools, along with practical tips for improving family engagement at the secondary level. Some of these challenges include lack of connection, poor communication, poor attendance, and complex curriculum. The tips and practices that are presented here are just a few of the…

Although report cards may seem to be a clear-cut means of communication between teachers and parents, on closer examination they reveal a more complicated interaction. Parents of fourth-graders are interviewed about their children's report cards to learn their understandings of the language and discuss expectations for their children in school. A…

This article discusses how U.S. teachers can pick up on cultural cues from parents with roots in other countries and help smooth their children's transition to U.S. classrooms. In this article, the author presents a scenario where a U.S. teacher welcomed parents with roots form other countries into her classroom. Here, she discusses the importance…