Three case studies in southern California explore the effects of parental involvement on a child's reading achievement through the parent's influence over reading group placement. Two Hispanic first-graders improved substantially when their parents took actions explicitly related to reading group placement; a third remained in a low reading group.…

Presents the Two-Level Cooperative Group Learning Model, a small-group instruction technique, developed at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and based on the Jigsaw II approach. Outlines a sample unit, showing how student expert groups teach their home teams. Demonstrates the technique's benefits: greater student motivation and interaction,…

Information from meetings on the legal aspects of child sexual abuse is used a starting point for a discussion of risk management and program improvement plans intended to safeguard child care center staff from unwarranted accusations. A full-page chart of "Self-Defense Strategies" is included. (DR)

Examines the history and vocabularies of the Highlander Folk School (Tennessee), an adult education school emphasizing decision-making, critical thinking, and active citizen participation. Encourages social studies teachers to become aware of their vocabularies, using the Highlander example in the discourse about the nature of knowledge and the…

This article relates experiences of a sixth grade teacher who taught an undergraduate language arts methods course for a semester and a college faculty member who spent a year observing and teaching language arts methods to inservice teachers in six schools. Both focused on empowering teachers to make curriculum decisions. (IAH)

Discusses successes and failures in the field of instructional technology and suggests methods to design more appropriate systems that would present fewer barriers to adoption. Topics discussed include educational television; videotext; video technology; audiovisual aids; teleconferencing; computer assisted instruction; interactive video; CD-ROM;…

Encourages teachers to share appropriate information about books and reading with parents in order to influence storybook reading in their students' homes. (MG)

Concern about potential disruption by Latino gang members in East Los Angeles (California) high schools results in over-emphasis on classroom control and neglect of these students' academic and social development. This study recommends steps to encourage the integration and participation in schooling of gang members through individualized…

The smaller the school district, the higher the achievement, when the socioeconomic status and per student expenditure are taken into account. Administrative and parental involvement should be determined by the size of the school district regardless of the socioeconomic level of the community. (BJV)

Examines the influence of a regular book borrowing service designed to enable and encourage parents to read to their children. Finds no statistically significant difference between control and experimental groups on a reading test, but finds an unexpectedly high level of parental interest. (RS)

The study of philanthropy should be included in the college curriculum. Issues related to the following are discussed: Black philanthropy; community service work; raising awareness; Judaism's view of philanthropy; active citizenship; Hawthorne's "Blithedale Romance"; and philanthropy, religion, and American culture. (MSE)

Nine gifted learning-disabled children with organizational skill deficits were put on a structured timetable of after-school activities. Parents were taught behaviorally based discipline techniques designed to reduce disruptive family behavior. Improvements were subsequently observed in the middle school students' home and school behavior, school…

Examines the use of reading diaries, in which parents of poor readers recorded their child's reading activities at home. Indicates that children made a mean gain in Reading Age Score of 6.3 months after five weeks of using the reading diary approach. Reports positive change in reading attitudes for both parents and children. (MG)

Examined effects of school improvement program on elementary students' (N=306), teachers' (N=98), and parents' (N=276) perceptions of school and classroom climate, student achievement, and attendance. Compared to seven control schools, seven participating schools showed significantly greater improvement in students' and parents' perceptions of…

The available evidence indicates that home school youth of compulsory education age have been scoring equal or better than their conventional school peers on measures of cognitive achievement and desirable affective traits; the significance of this is discussed. (BJV)