Teachers in a large, urban school district created Wellness Wednesday, a program in which students invite family members and school staff members to join them every other Wednesday for an aerobic workout. The article describes how the program works and notes successful program ideas. (SM)

Reviews the requirements of the revised Title I for parent and community involvement in schools, especially the requirement for school-parent contracts, and summarizes research on the effects of school-family partnerships on students, teachers, and parents. Two major programs for building such partnerships are described. (SLD)

Focuses on ways to ensure sustained parental participation in the school's multicultural educational efforts. Includes suggestions for identifying parents' multicultural education needs, interests, and expertise; for supporting parents in fostering a multicultural home environment, extending children's multicultural literacy, participating in the…

Reviews literature on parent/teacher partnerships. Proposes a systemic theoretical approach which frames the factors in an ecological and social system perspective, thereby enabling teachers to visualize how complex and dynamic the parent/teacher partnership is, to view events from more than one perspective, and to monitor their responses to…

Discusses the techniques used in Japan to assess and monitor the acquisition of auditory skills by hearing-impaired children. Suggests that digits, syllables, and word lists are more suited to adults. Proposes the use of words, sounds, and music familiar to children in combination with instruments based on observation of daily activities in either…

Discusses the Home Training Program for congenital hearing-impaired infants and their families administered by the Teikyo University Hospital. Suggests that the program is based on the maximum use of residual hearing, early identification of hearing impairment and early intervention, and support for parents. (AA)

Describes development of Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program from an alliance of neoliberal reformers and supporters of inner-city community schools enrolling Black and Latino students. Necessary ingredients included the legacy of independent community schools, frustration of many Black school reformers with Milwaukee Public Schools, and political…

Even improved school systems cannot fully prepare children for the challenges ahead, so families must become partners in education. Parents must be lifelong teachers: effective parents must model appropriate behaviors and attitudes, provide guidance, communicate love, teach responsibility, create community, nurture spiritual values, and…

Reviews literature on family influence on children's acquisition of literacy. Discusses the ambivalence regarding family literacy theories and the lack of family literacy theoretical frameworks. Identifies types of family involvement and effective literacy strategies for families. Finds that most studies suggest that family literacy contributes to…

Reviews the literature about preschool immersion education for Indigenous languages. Describes the two oldest and best known of such programs: Kohanga Reo ("language nests") in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Punana Leo in Hawaii. Looks at existing U.S. programs, particularly Arapaho preschools in Wyoming. Outlines major themes and issues in developing…

The First Step to Success program was implemented with 22 kindergartners who showed early signs of developing antisocial behaviors. All 16 who completed the program showed significantly increased levels of academic engaged time, with follow-up levels generally maintained at acceptable levels. Overall behavioral improvement was significant but…

Describes the High/Scope Preschool Curriculum, an approach that supports young children's learning and enables children, particularly those at risk, to achieve greater school success and adult socioeconomic status. Discusses the central principles of curriculum: active learning, positive adult-child interactions, child-centered learning…

An Anchorage (Alaska) elementary school serving low-income minority groups revitalized itself by starting a dual-language (Spanish/English) immersion program. Pull-out programs were coordinated using instructional and tutoring teams, quality professional development was provided, bilingualism was fostered for all students, and parent participation…

Discusses the assessment of the impact of parent involvement in the Head Start Family Impact Project. This project was undertaken with cooperation from the Parents in Community Action (PICA) component of the Hennepin County, Minnesota, Head Start Program. (BB)

Shares 16 insights about reading instruction which two professors gained from first-grade students when they left the university setting and returned to teach in public schools. (MG)