"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Where High Turnover Meets Low Performance: New Initiatives Target the Special Problems of Hard-to-Staff Schools (Alexander Russo); (2) Parents as Partners in School Reform:…

This "In Brief" edition provides highlights from the "Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders, Second Edition." It presents the updated prevention principles, an overview of program planning, and critical first steps for those learning about prevention. Thus, this…

This study examines the factors that influence participation in vocational education among students who attended high school during the early 1990s--that is, when the focus of federal vocational education policy began to change. The factors examined included three types of characteristics of students, their parents, and their high schools: (1)…

This comprehensive review of 16 nationally representative public opinion polls conducted between 2000 and 2006 provides insight into how teachers, school administrators, parents, and the general public view the teaching profession. It looks specifically at issues of teacher availability, recruitment, and retention for at-risk and hard-to-staff…

Incidents of violence in recent years have intensified concern about student conduct in our nation's schools, and have heightened the desire, among educators and others, to find ways of ameliorating the problem. Social science can play a supportive role, by providing insight into the origins of deviance in schools. However, while previous…

The State Board of Education and the Michigan Department of Education are about to publish letter grades for each of the state's 4,015 public elementary, middle and high schools. These grades are part of "Education Yes!", Michigan's new school accreditation system. The familiar ABCD/F grades of their youth will provide parents and the…

A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This study finds that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading skills and increase the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the…

Most boards are insulated from misbehavior of college fraternities and sororities. This article shows how they could aid reforms by facilitating partnerships and developing a better understanding of today's Greek culture. To change the current culture, a renewed commitment is needed to develop working partnerships between the key constituencies…

Invaluable for anyone looking to understand young children's thinking, this essential textbook helpfully combines introductions to theories about thinking with observations from real-life practice. The book explores underlying theories behind topics such as: (1) the relationship between nature and nurture; (2) models of cognitive development, with…

Partners in Quality is a research and development project sponsored by the Canadian Child Care Federation and its affiliates to explore how child care providers, parents, and other partners can work together to support and improve quality in child care. This booklet, in both English and French, supplements a series to support child care providers…

This Kids Count data book examines national and statewide trends in the well being of the nation's children. Statistical portraits are based on 10 indicators of well being: (1) percent of low birth weight babies; (2) infant mortality rate; (3) child death rate; (4) rate of teen deaths by accident, homicide, and suicide; (5) teen birth rate; (6)…

With a quarter of the country's children enrolled in Medicaid, the program has become an extremely important source of funding of all public health care for children and now provides half of all spending on public mental health systems. In 2002 the Bazelon Center undertook to examine whether Medicaid-eligible children were, in fact, receiving an…

More employers have mobilized to support career academies. They say that in addition to improving student engagement in school, academies help to strengthen relationships among business leaders, educators, and civic leaders; prevent high risk students from dropping out; and expand their pipeline of qualified workers. Academic research has helped…

This guide describes a series of ways to translate research findings and general ideas on youth violence into day-to-day teaching and learning in homes and schools. Five sections include: (1) "Teaching and Learning Core Social Emotional Competencies" (e.g., what educators, counselors, and parents can do, and promoting core social and…

This guide provides information to assist in developing and monitoring programming for students with learning disabilities. It focuses on key components of programming based on research and best practices. Expected outcomes of implementing the suggested strategies are described for each key component. The guide stresses that these key components…