All students need to develop essential academic skills and to acquire a knowledge base on which to build lifelong learning. To this end, Texas has implemented sweeping reforms of the state's public education system in the form of House Bill (HB) 72. This legislation essentially revamped every aspect of public education. This report gives a summary…

Written for parents of handicapped children, the handbook describes the process for obtaining a free, appropriate public education for such children as set forth in Public Law 94-142 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. An initial explanation of terms (such as "least restrictive…

The symposium on Issues of Parent Involvement and Literacy marked the culmination of a collaborative project of Trinity College in Washington, D.C. and the Arlington (Virginia) Public Schools to reach out to limited-English-proficient (LEP) parents. Papers include: "Bilingual Education Policies: An Overview"; "Parent Involvement: Implications for…

This report describes methodology and results of a study to determine the nature and extent of the high school dropout problem in the Appalachian region and to explore characteristics of existing programs dealing with dropout problems in the region. Data aggregation complicated by lack of standardization in reporting numbers of dropouts and…

Focusing on family interaction, this book discusses a study designed to develop systematic ways of looking at reading and writing as activities that have consequences in and are affected by family life. Topics of the seven chapters are as follows: the six families involved in the research, conservation and change in the transmission of family…

This paper reviews the impact on the instructional process of having paraprofessionals and adult volunteers, particularly parents and senior citizens, in the special education classroom. It discusses the duties they perform in the classroom and the reasons for low parental participation. The review of the literature suggests the following…

Children responded enthusiastically to a program that used Shoshoni poetry songs to teach some concepts about human languages in general. Twelve children (four Caucasian, eight Native American) in grades 1-3 and their parents met for four 1-hour sessions. The lessons focused on the sound, meaning, and word order of the Shoshoni language; Shoshoni…

This volume contains an advice column and five papers on teaching behaviorally disordered youth. The "Grand Rounds" column offers advice on two teaching situations involving extremely disruptive classroom behavior and elective mutism. "The Franklin-Jefferson Program: Demonstration of an Integrated Social Learning Approach to…

Dropout prevention is emerging as the most important new issue in education. Broad demographic trends predict a continuing growth in the population of at-risk youth, those most likely to drop out of school. The overall goal of any dropout prevention activity is to reduce the number of at-risk students. This issue is devoted to what research and…

In this study, the degree of parent involvement--as measured by the amount of their participation in school-related activities, communication with teachers, and school decision-making--is examined for 1,070 parents whose at-risk children attend five innercity Catholic high schools. The variables of parents' education, religion, marital status, and…

This book is a series of questions that parents can use in gathering information about the education quality of a particular school. These questions could be asked of school officials at the school being considered. The contents of this guide are divided into sections by topic: (1) school district philosophy/goals/objectives; (2) accreditation;…

Second in a series of state publications providing suggestions to school districts for serving limited-English-proficient (LEP) students, the handbook on school support services discusses several areas that may require special attention: working with parents of LEP students; staff development or in-service education; transfer of student records;…

Conducted in a school serving mainly Hispanic children, this practicum implemented an intervention designed to increase parents' involvement in the learning activities of their children. Practicum goals were to: (1) increase parents' attendance at Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meetings; (2) increase parents' attendance at parent-teacher…

Evaluation results of 1979-80 compensatory education programs for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children in 75 Baltimore, Maryland public and private schools are presented in this report. The program provided early learning experiences in reading, mathematics, and language for educationally disadvantaged 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds to enhance…

Survey data from 3,698 teachers in 600 schools in Maryland are used to explore the determinants of teachers' use of parent involvement strategies. Two questions are addressed: (1) How much do elementary school teachers organize their teaching practice to facilitate parent involvement in home learning activities? and (2) Which factors in the…