This article invites candidates for president to strengthen teaching and teacher education for diverse students. The article first describes two remarkable teachers in California to illustrate what strong teaching of diverse students looks like. It then discusses what the diverse students of this nation need of teachers, including teachers with…

Adults who immigrate to the United States recognize the value of fluency in the dominant language as a bridge to social mobility in their new homeland. In California, many of them invest time and energy in noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) programs offered within the community college system to gain communicative competence and enhance…

Noting that schools need to be concerned with non-academic conditions that affect academic achievement and need to work with other services and programs to help students, the introductory chapter of this book offers reasons why existing programs are not working and suggests interagency collaboration as a solution. The second chapter offers, as a…

Nurturing children's passionate interest in writing increases the chances that they will incorporate writing into their lifestyles. Educators can help children in their journey toward success by creating a positive professional attitude about writing in school, allowing substantial time for writing, providing opportunities to become immersed in a…

In a survey of the 1994 finalists in the National Superintendent of the Year program, superintendents from all 50 states identified 10 major ways in which students had changed since the 1960s. Dysfunctional families, the influence of high technology, and threats of crime and violence headed the list. This booklet describes change among American…

This volume seeks to refine and extend knowledge about approaches to supporting the caregiving roles of families. The chapters in the volume describe and appraise new directions in family support. After an introduction, the two parts of the volume address "New Directions for Family Resource and Support Programs" (six chapters) and…

This guide for building family/school/community partnerships uses a model in which family members and professionals are seen as mutual mentors in partnerships built on mutual caring, trust, and respect in the effort to work collaboratively toward self-sufficiency for children with disabilities. Basic ground rules for successful team relationships…

The interrelationships between child and family outcomes can best be understood within an ecological perspective of psychological, social, and economic factors. Based on work with a group of early education and intervention projects with a two-generation focus, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for defining and assessing the impact of…

This report of a group of business and labor leaders convened at the White House Conference on Child Care in October 1997 identifies and provides examples of a variety of ways that businesses can promote access to child care for their employees. The report begins with a letter from Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Following an introduction…

During a workshop at the 1997 International Conference on Adventure Therapy, small groups shared and recorded their experience of personal challenges and impacts of wilderness work. This report summarizes those findings, reviews the literature on stresses and personal difficulties experienced by adventure therapists and other wilderness…

This action research project involved the implementation and evaluation of a program for increased parental involvement at an elementary school in western Illinois. Evidence for the lack of parental involvement included declining membership in the Parent-Teacher Organization, elimination of the computer lab, limited library hours due to lack of…

Student mobility is defined as student enrollment at different schools between or within the school year. A study of Texas students' mobility is offered. Although the study focused primarily on within-year student mobility, longitudinal issues were examined by following first-grade students of 1991-92 through the 1995-96 school year. The research…

When families take part in their young children's education programs, children do better in school. Many early childhood programs offer families the opportunity to participate in their children's learning through family resource centers. Family resource centers provide information on raising and educating children, along with ideas on how to work…

Based on 2 years of visits to Head Start programs across the country, this book compiles firsthand accounts and personal chronicles of the effects of participation in Head Start. The book's first section, "Making the Promise," contains chapters: (1) "The First Day of School at Watts Towers Center"; (2) "Stonewall, Texas:…

The League of Schools Reaching Out is a national project to show how family/community/school partnerships can contribute significantly to school restructuring. It aims to increase the academic and social success of all children, especially those society labels as at risk. The league is attempting to expand the notion that the internal methods,…