Lunch time can provide nutritionally adequate meals and also create settings in which children learn mechanical and social skills. Editor/DR

The authors assert that parents may choose, for a number of reasons, not to be involved with the education of their mentally retarded child. Factors that may affect the advisibility of involvement include the severity of the child's disability, the parents' energy, family relationships, and life-styles. (CL)

The article describes and compares four models of parental involvement that reflect aspects of current professional practices in planning individualized programs for disabled children: (1) uninformed consent, (2) uninformed participation, (3) informed consent, and (4) informed participation. Positive effects of and ways to achieve informed…

Argues that, as the new minority in the United States, parents of school-age children must actively involve themselves in the decision-making process to assure the adaptation of appropriate communal and educational services. (MP)

A paraeducator model uses community volunteers, including parents, to implement individualized educational programs for gifted and talented students. (CL)

Describes the effects of elementary curriculum materials using instant photography developed for the Polaroid Education Project. The materials most effectively reached students who do not respond to verbal materials. Students and teachers shared authority in interpreting student photographs. Photography activities increased parent interest and…

Parents at a North Carolina high school were surveyed about their general confidence in the school, their opinions about the importance of specific school functions, and their confidence in these functions. These responses were correlated to measures of their willingness to be involved in the school. (SJL)

Improvement of a school's discipline program can begin with the opinion inventories published by the National Study of School Evaluation. Once teachers, students, and parents have assessed strengths and weaknesses, an appropriate plan can be chosen. This article outlines five approaches. (WD)

Results indicated that parent attitudes varied significantly according to attendance or nonattendance at the parent education meeting and were directly related to relative level of parents' intentions to support educational programs for gifted students. (Author/SB)

Urges that schools mount public relations programs that emphasize the accomplishments of the schools and give brief accounts of some successful programs. (IRT)

Looks at evaluations of the program to frame a discussion of the troubled history of Head Start and its current favored position. (IRT)

P.L. 94-142 mandates that parents have the right to be actively involved in their children's individualized education programs. Personnel of the Exemplary Service Project at the Exceptional Child Center, Utah State University, have found that, to make a parent part of his child's planning and implementation team, the school staff must provide…

In 1974, the federal court in Boston ordered busing and a massive effort to accelerate the pace of academic progress in the Boston schools. Included in the order was the creation of twenty-two magnet schools and an unprecedented level of parent participation with the vehicles to make it possible. (JOW)

The authors present a model of parent-school involvement in furthering the educational development of gifted students. The disadvantages and advantages of three counseling approaches are pointed out--parent centered approach, school centered approach, and the partnership approach. (SBH)