In a large Australian preschool, perceptions of parents (n=41) regarding their role in their children's education were studied and classified into four groups, based in part on parent ideas about the relative contributions and responsibilities of parents and teachers. Parent participation in preschool activities was found to be related to role…

Discusses how to plan and organize for volunteers and the many ways volunteers can help to improve reading instruction in the classroom. (MG)

Describes an innovative approach to building a school community taking hold at a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, elementary school. Called Parents in Partnership, the program uses a Big Brother/Big Sister model to link parents of incoming kindergarten children with more experienced parents at the school. The parents form informal, personal networks…

The Alliance for Achievement Network has given the principal of Kingston (Illinois) Elementary School a framework for bridging the gap between school and home. Since September 1990, she and other school council members have worked to adopt a school constitution, select school-community values, write goal statements, and set expectations for…

Determines the type and number of words that are in the environmental vocabularies of a selected group of second-grade students. Discusses the importance of parents and teachers assisting children to develop their environmental vocabularies. (RS)

Like British morning programs of recent decades, upstate New York program encourages parents and community residents to get involved in children's education. Parents and community residents--watercolor artists, auto mechanics, doll collectors, and others--are welcomed and valued in schools. Program's purpose is learning, not entertainment. Topics…

A Vermont middle school, a grade 7-8 union (regional) school, developed an orientation program to meet the needs of over 300 incoming seventh-grade students coming from 9 elementary schools in 5 different districts, plus a parochial school. The program is planned by a coordinating council and a student-guidance team; emphasis is on clear-cut…

This study, involving parents of 165 children under 6-years old, revealed internal consistency and test-retest reliability of 9 of the 11 dimensions constituting the Parent Interview for Autism. Six of the test dimensions differentiated young children with autism from a developmentally comparable group with mental retardation. (Author/JDD)

Describes an interactive videoconference on change in local mathematics education to train participants in involving local schools and communities in educational reform. Includes a checklist to evaluate students and teachers titled "What Should I Look for in a Math Classroom?" (SM)

The community education program developed in San Antonio, Texas, was designed to work with the Hispanic population. Community educators found nonthreatening ways to bring parents into the school, to get them involved in their children's education, and to encourage them to take classes themselves. (JOW)

Best preschool programs provide both developmentally appropriate curricula and school-based family support services. This article describes four exemplary, innovative, and low-cost early education programs in Kentucky, Colorado, Iowa, and Florida that integrate family support, day care, and health and social services. These districts had visionary…

A teacher working in a school with an open-door policy discusses some difficulties with this arrangement. She had trouble finding a private place, including the staff room, to talk intimately with other teachers, had to build her schedule around parent helpers, and noted some unethical treatment of children. Parent involvement is no elixir. The…

Describes parents' and school psychologists' perspective on 33 parent-involvement activities aimed at enhancing students' school success. Although parents' mean ratings for use were higher than school psychologists' mean ratings of feasibility of implementation on 94% of activities, a high degree of similarity exists in rank order of activities…

Examines the experiences of families in which fathers care for their newborn infants when mothers return to work after childbirth. Documents the hours of care provided by fathers while mothers are at work, the simultaneous use of other child-care arrangements, and the average savings per family. Explores three possible motivations for families to…

Describes parents' involvement in implementing a basic-schools initiative that integrates proven best research-based practices for elementary education. Data from individual and focus-group interviews and participant observations show that school personnel and parents engaged in traditional involvement methods as a foundation to involvement in…