This report describes the findings of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's 1999 national survey, in its series looking at the impact of educational reform on primary and intermediate schools. In 1989 reforms were enacted that abolished the Department of Education and began elections for boards of trustees who took responsibility for…

In New Zealand, Maori children attend English-medium schools, schools with a bilingual unit, or kura kaupapa Maori. This study identified aspirations and concerns of Maori parents regarding their children's education, identified issues related to parents' participation in their child's education, and developed strategies to address concerns and…

Throughout the English-speaking world, and now Western Europe and parts of East Asia, parental choice and educational markets are being seen by politicians and policy advisors as the panacea to problems of low educational standards and social exclusion. This book tests the key assumptions underlying the faith in markets by linking an analysis of…

Suggesting that our society does not know enough about adolescent male development to provide them the love they need to become fully responsible, loving, and wise men, this book illuminates the inner lives of both highly functioning and troubled boys to help parents and educators confront the most common moral and emotional dilemmas of adolescent…

This study examined the nature of and types of school involvement of parents of children with disabilities from rural school districts in Virginia. Parents (N=52) of elementary and middle school children from three different rural school districts completed a questionnaire containing a Likert type scale and open-ended questions. The data were…

Although most nineteenth-century American parents relied staunchly on common sense in raising their children, by the 1920s numerous parent education programs had been established to urge a scientific approach to child rearing. Today, American parents are besieged with medical and psychological advice about bringing up "normal" children.…

This study examined immigrant parents' role in their young children's language learning and development in linguistically different contexts. At home, participating children lived with parents who spoke little or no English and various other languages. At school, children were taught mostly by English speaking teachers, with occasional teacher…

A 2-year project was undertaken to develop, test, and distribute a video-based program to train low-income parents in engaging their 3- to 5-year-old children in highly motivating play techniques in order to enhance children's cognitive, social and motor skills for school readiness. An evaluation was conducted of the Year One phase of the training…

Noting that parent involvement in their children's education is a crucial contributor to children's achievement, this study investigated the relations among family factors, parental involvement in children's learning activities within and outside of Head Start, and children's outcomes related to literacy, numeracy, social skills, and behavior…

This report examines the development of Conduct Disorder (CD) in children and adolescents from the perspective of Hans Eysenck's bio-social theory of personality. The theory views personality as a product of the interaction of temperament and socialization. Eysenck's three-factor model of personality is comprised of Extroversion (E), Neuroticism…

The potential benefits of father participation in their children's reading and writing activities include improved literacy skills, increased bonding, and heightened self-esteem of both fathers and children. This paper identifies a training model for working with fathers--Project DADS. Using this model, early childhood professionals can foster…

Why should schools have a Family Math Night? It helps students learn essential math concepts. It gives parents a chance to serve as models of motivation, persistence and competence. It promotes math success in a supportive setting. With its step-by-step directions and suggestions for both teachers and parents, this book takes the worry out of…

When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, it authorized an evaluation to track progress at the state and local levels on the legislative goals of IDEA. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) commissioned a national longitudinal study, the Study of State and Local…

A former childcare worker addresses the connection between social problems plaguing modern life and society's attitudes toward the role of women and mothering. She describes the detrimental effects on children who are placed in day care at an early age and urges that families abandon materialism and work toward improving the quality of their own…

Studied perceptions and attitudes of fathers and mothers about their own and their spouse's parental roles, and identified relationships between those perceptions and variations in fathers' actual involvement in child rearing. Found mothers' perceptions of their partners' investments in parent, spouse, and worker roles were best predictors of…