Noting that socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural variations among fathers and differences in family structure may affect fathers' roles and their level of involvement with their children, this brief summarizes key research findings on the ways in which various factors influence fathers' involvement in children's lives. Regarding socioeconomic…

Drawing on a parent's perspective, this booklet presents tools, strategies, and information a parent will need to ensure their child will get the best education possible. The book's chapters are as follows: (1) "Organizing Your Home for Success," including teaching the child to be organized and what to do to promote learning at home; (2)…

This report details findings from visits to 15 small schools associated with Human Scale Education. These schools are all different, reflecting the priorities of their founders. But there are features common to all of them--parental involvement, democratic processes, environmentally sustainable values, spiritual values, links with the local…

Using the mythical creature of the Himalayas, the Yeti, as a symbol for the prejudices and assumptions that people prematurely make about each other, this book discusses bringing up children to accept and cherish diversity and helping them to thrive in an increasingly diverse world. Directed to educators and caregivers of toddlers and…

This book examines the efforts of Valley Interfaith--a community-based organization in the south Texas borderlands--to improve the living conditions of low-income residents and immigrants and the public schools their children attend. Valley Interfaith is unusual in that it crosses the boundary separating the worlds of community organizing and…

This manual, designed to help public libraries in Arizona to plan their summer reading programs for children, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Arizona Reading Program. The material in the manual is prepared for libraries to adapt for their own uses. Chapters of the manual include: (1) Introductory Materials; (2) Goals, Objectives and…

Project Leadership Excellence Achievement and Performance (LEAP) was designed to respond to the needs of gifted students enrolled in secondary schools in rural areas. This paper describes Project LEAP's implementation in four rural Oklahoma high schools with high American Indian enrollments and high percentages of low-income families and limited…

The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is a grassroots initiative to increase opportunities for families to be more involved with their children's learning at school and at home, to strengthen schools, and to improve student achievement levels. This CD-ROM from the Partnership contains materials and resources on family involvement in…

The school reform movement has been a major societal and political agenda item for nearly two decades. As a result of the pressure stemming from the movement to make schools more effective, many changes have occurred. The most obvious of these changes is an increased emphasis on assessment. Furthermore, school counselors, like teachers and…

This document presents an action plan to solve the problem of inadequate English-as-a-Second/Other-Language (ESOL) instruction in high school content area courses and to increase effort and motivation among ESOL students. ESOL students often do not have sufficient command of English to do very well in content-oriented courses (such as history,…

In 1998 the authors published research with NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) "Family Numeracy Adds Up" showing how parents and children had gained from fourteen pilot family numeracy programmes. It showed strong evidence of the double benefits of work with families. Children have an early boost in their learning and…

This report summarizes some Austin Independent School District (AISD) activities to support parent and community involvement during the 2005-2006 school year.

Describes a comprehensive program utilizing pull-out programs, enrichment, and individualized mentorship contracts for gifted/talented students, grades 1-12, in Poland School District (Ohio). Participant selection factors include parent nominations, teacher recommendations, achievement test scores, peer identification, and self-evaluation.…

Defines primary prevention in mental health as the building of health and competencies from an early age to prevent adverse psychological outcomes. Describes potential approaches to primary prevention for young children, such as early detection and intervention; helper therapy; mental health education; competence training; social system…

Discusses basic differences between programs for special education students in urban areas and in rural areas and identifies critical needs for delivery of services to special education students in rural and remote areas as: teacher recruitment and development; services to exceptional students; legislation and funding; and parent and community…