This guide takes illustrated children's literature into the world of service learning (positing that when these two are joined, learning opportunities open up) and suggests how teachers can enhance students' service learning experiences with children's literature. Topics covered in the nine short sections of the guide include telling stories, the…

This report describes the design, implementation, and impact of a book loan program in an inner-city preschool where books were freely and easily available to low-income primarily Spanish-speaking families, most of whom are recent immigrants. Data collected included check-out frequency, book titles, student participation, and field notes of the…

Noting the need for increased teacher knowledge of parent involvement activities in order for school-home partnerships to improve, this study examined parent involvement in their children's literacy development and the knowledge of parent involvement among their children's teachers. Participating in this study were 102 parents of children in…

Noting that the growing concern among parents about the quality of their children's elementary science and mathematics education--reinforced by media reports on various educational controversies--contributes to a lack of understanding between teachers and parents, this book provides three parent education workshops designed to bridge the gap. The…

This booklet addresses student membership on local boards of education. It is intended to serve as guide for boards considering adding youth to their membership. It discusses the following topics: (1) the benefits to both students and the board of youth serving as board members; (2) researching issues before accepting students on boards; (3)…

This paper focuses on learner autonomy, noting that learner autonomy is not a matter of institutional mode but of learners' internal attitudes, and that learner autonomy entails an awareness of both self-direction and collaboration between the teacher and students and between students and students. The paper suggests that a teacher's attitude…

This booklet looks at the role of learner feedback in the quality improvement process. It suggests how adult and community learning (ACL) providers can adapt and improve their practice to meet the needs of learners in the changed policy context. Chapter 1 explores why providers should listen to learners and finds that listening to learners…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of the Ohio Higher Education Partnership Project (OHEPP), a federally funded project designed to develop a model for promoting greater levels of participation within institutions of higher education by parents of children with disabilities. OHEPP has the following three objectives: (1) to…

A case study examined the nature of parent involvement in five Mexican-origin, migrant families with children who were highly successful students. The families had their home base in different regions of Texas. Each had a child recognized as an exemplary migrant high school graduate, and together the families had more than 40 academically…

The move toward standards-based instruction calls for greater student involvement in the learning process. Cooperative learning is widely used as many standards-based school departments advocate greater employment of constructivist classrooms as the most appropriate vehicle of instruction. During academic year 2002-03, 42 students from California…

The Creative Curriculum for preschool education is a teaching framework that addresses children's emotional, cognitive, and physical development. This checklist is designed for use in assessing how well the curriculum is being implemented as intended and includes a classroom profile form and a progress and planning form. The implementation…

This paper illustrates how the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is exploring a new paradigm of evaluation that is responsive to the claims, concerns, and issues of stakeholders involved. Known as culturally responsive evaluation, this alternative conceived by the Initiative for Culturally Responsive Evaluation (ICRE) is considered more appropriate than…

Noting that our ability to incorporate the cultural strengths and the distinctive ways that families, specifically fathers, contribute to educational accomplishments of preschool children is severely constrained by major gaps and inadequacy in the research literature, this Digest explores what is known about the role of fathers in young children's…

This study explored the roles that two parents played in their daughter's English education during the initial period after moving to the United States. For English language learners (ELLS) with limited first language schooling in the home country, it usually takes several years to demonstrate cognitive academic language proficiency. For ELL…

In this exploratory study, researchers compared characteristics and teaching practices of teachers, perceived by themselves to be exemplary technology-users, with characteristics and teaching practices of exemplary users described in the literature. Using a qualitative case-study design, the researchers examined the pedagogical beliefs and…