Parents of gifted children may be convinced to support inclusive programs. In one Washington district, well-educated parents given sixth-grade test data supported an enriched, inclusive program once they realized that some of their kids would not qualify as gifted. Districts can allow parents to attend professional development programs alongside…

A holistic, community-based multiagency approach is needed to foster effective home-school liaison with ethnic minority parents. Adult educators should take a community development approach that identifies parenting needs and recognizes the implications of underachievement among young ethnic minority adults. (SK)

Interviews assessed parents' thinking, strategies, and actions regarding homework. Found that parent concerns clustered around five topics; findings suggest students' homework represented a complex multidimensional set of tasks for parents, for which they often felt ill-prepared by limitations in knowledge and competing demands for their time and…

Evaluation of the validity of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences with 44 children with Down syndrome and 48 typically developing children established the validity of this parental measure of vocabulary development for children with Down syndrome and confirmed its validity for typically developing children.…

The Talk to a Literacy Learner program seeks to strengthen parents' role in schools by offering advice on reading-writing interaction, developing community resource people, raising community expectations of literacy and education, and serving as a catalyst for community-based literacy initiatives. (SK)

Describes the efforts of the Tacoma, Washington, school system to boost student achievement. The district implemented high standards and promoted parent involvement. Other features included a staff-training program, a revamped summer-school program, and a cooperative program with local colleges and universities. (LMI)

A computer-based curriculum program called Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development (Project CHILD) has been tested in 82 classrooms in 10 elementary schools in Okaloosa County, Florida. As part of a sixth-grade follow-up study, students in Project CHILD had a B average in math and language arts versus a C average for students in a…

Using educational vouchers for private schooling will aggravate the fragmented society that Jonathan Kozol visualizes in the November 1992 issue of "Educational Leadership." However, public schools of choice are desirable because they permit diverse teaching/learning styles, curricular emphases, or organizational structures to coexist…

Counters Jonathan Kozol's concerns about educational vouchers, insisting that $2,500 could buy a quality private school education in Montgomery, Alabama. Critiques other voucher articles in the November 1992 "Educational Leadership" issue by challenging Alex Molnar's common school system concept and Arnold Fege's substitution of societal…

Teachers' daily interaction is a powerful influence on at-risk students. Effective dropout prevention components include positive instructional environment, enhancement of self-esteem, alternative education, absence monitoring, mentoring, parent involvement, social and health services, teen parent programs, and transition strategies. (SK)

Provides a framework for developing family literacy programs. Explains the characteristics of effective family literacy activities. Shares a compilation of family literacy goals and activities recently developed by a group of Ohio teachers. (RS)

In September 1990, three programs (Family Study Institute, Saturday School Programs, and Evening Programs) to strengthen and improve parent-school partnerships and enhance communication were instituted in a racially integrated school district in Cook County, Illinois. Evaluation findings showed that parental involvement significantly enhanced…

A framework for integrating parental influence into adolescent career counseling has these steps: development of a trusting relationship; exploration of the valence of parental influence; and interventions depending on whether parents have positive, negative, or no involvement. (SK)

Academic Development Institute study found schools having greatest difficulty engaging parents were those with high concentrations of poor, single-parent families with many children. Project Better Day was designed to identify uninvolved parents whose grade 1-4 children were behind grade level; draw these parents into positive school relationship;…

Mothers and fathers (n=96) reported involvement with autistic, mentally delayed, and normal children for two days when both parents were home. Parents of normal and mentally delayed children reported greater involvement than parents of autistic children. Across groups, mothers reported longer involvement than fathers, with mothers of autistic…