Strong family involvement in children's education supports positive academic and social-emotional outcomes. Therefore, developing early childhood (EC) professionals' competence in engaging and involving families in their children's education is emphasized across state licensure requirements, personnel preparation standards, and professional…

The purpose of this article is to advance the importance and value of participant-oriented research (POR) at research universities. We highlight a case study of community collaboration as it relates to a strengths-based educational model for students with autism. This evidence-based program's success centers on the inclusion of students, parents,…

Special education teacher collaboration with families is essential to supporting students with disabilities, yet such partnerships often fall short in practice, and teachers report they are not adequately prepared to work with families. In order to prepare competent teachers for working with families, a Family Collaboration Project was…

The purpose of this multi-institutional qualitative study was to understand the educational pathways of Latino males by underscoring the unique role female family members play in their academic pursuits--through the voice of these young men. Findings demonstrate female family members were identified as being primary supporters of their educational…

This study reports results of a randomized, controlled trial examining the efficacy of the Family Check-Up (FCU) initiated during kindergarten on teacher report of children's emotional and behavior problems in first and second grade. Children's emotional and behavior needs and the receipt of special services in school at pretest were examined as…

Social networks are explored as educational tools, but results remain contradictory. The goal was to assess families' response to a Facebook group created to support class work and expand it to homes. Forty parents (27 mothers, 13 fathers) participated. A pre-experimental one-group post-test-only research design was followed. The group's activity…

Parents of young children who are in an early intervention (EI) or early childhood special education (ECSE) program, want to be sure these services are helping their child develop and learn. These services are designed to make the most of each child's potential, as well as to strengthen the family's ability to help their child. However, in what…

The present study examined the concurrent relations between culture-specific dimensions of family engagement for low-income, Pan-Latine families and children's narrative ability, a critical predictor of reading success. One hundred seventy-five children and their caregivers were recruited from seven Head Start centers in a large city in the…

This summary report highlights the key findings across all three iterations of the Minnesota Safe Learning Survey. Consistently, all three respondent groups, across all three survey distributions reported concerns about mental health, a message heard far beyond this survey. As time pressed on and educators, students, and families adapted and…

An inclusive technology ecosystem includes leadership, design, support, maintenance, and continuous improvement of technology infrastructure that supports the teaching, learning, and assessment of all students. The Center on Inclusive Technology in Education Systems (CITES) is a project led by CAST, a nonprofit education research and development…

With the large discrepancy between the undergraduate graduation rates of Hispanic students and students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, it is both an equity issue and an economic imperative that higher education institutions focus on retaining Hispanic students. This qualitative phenomenological study seeks to understand the barriers and…

A vast amount of research addressing school choice seeks to understand how and why parents/families choose schools. However, little is understood concerning the influence of choice on family beliefs and behavior. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand family perspectives, through the lens of Choice Theory (Glasser, 1998), of…

Family engagement is a critical component of school success for students. However, parents of middle and high school students are often less involved in home- and school-based activities than parents of elementary students. This article describes reasons for this decrease in parental engagement and offers specific ideas for fostering parental…

Countless articles in the news, combined with colorful anecdotes from faculty and staff, share common complaints about helicopters, lawnmowers, bulldozers, and snowplows--not transportation options on campus but rather parents of college students who stay actively involved in their students' lives. Honors faculty and administrators are tempted to…

Educators continue to advocate for increased family involvement in the education system, so there is value in understanding the reading and literacy histories, beliefs, and actions of parents. It is important for educators to recognize these dynamics because parents not only bring their children to school but they also "bring" the prior…