A project was conducted to develop a model to facilitate the expansion of adult education and family literacy classes in coordination with other local community organizations for delivery at rural public housing sites. The target audience was adult educators involved in facilitating family literacy and adult literacy programs for rural housing…

This paper surveys past and current theories about the workings of the mind, current brain research and psychological applications of non-linear dynamics. Parallels are drawn between the world of high-functioning autism, gifted individuals with learning disabilities, and aspects of genius. An organizing theory is presented, which includes these…

Hispanic parents have been slow to overcome their historical reluctance to turn their young children over to nonfamily members for care, but the educational boost preschool provides is particularly important for the one-quarter of Hispanic American families who are poor by Federal guidelines. This digest describes the strategies and programs…

Establishing and maintaining effective partnerships with families and members of the community are among the most challenging tasks facing educators today. This book explores why these partnerships are difficult to create and how they can be established. The book attempts to help educators understand that they have little control over changing the…

This paper recounts the Macomb-Oakland (Michigan) Regional Center's 17-year successful experience in eliminating institutional care for children with developmental disabilities (many of them with severe disabilities) and providing all such children with specialized foster home placements. A paper by the Center's director, Gerald Provencal,…

Goal 1 of the 6 national education goals established by President Bush and the nation's governors states that by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. This document provides schools and communities with information about what children need to be able to start school ready to learn and gives examples of…

A study examined the effectiveness of the West Heidelberg (Australia) Early Literacy Project (WHELP), which helps low income and working class parents develop the literacy skills of their 4-year-old children by, among other things, reading regularly to them. The project developed through three phases with three different methods of delivering…

Project WORK was developed by San Diego State University and San Diego City Schools in California to prepare young people with disabilities for work and life after high school. The program teaches employment skills; supports students in their first work experience; works with students and their families to plan for the student's work and life…

The Listening Partners project examined rural mothers' development of a sense of the power of their own minds and voices and the relationship between this sense of power and mothers' parenting strategies and their children's development. Two cohorts of 60 women from a rural, impoverished region of Vermont participated in the program. Half the…

This document describes programs that serve migrant preschool children and their families or that would be adaptable to the migrant population. Model programs illustrate trends in the direction of a "whole family" approach to early childhood education, respect for the importance of proficiency in the child's first language with regard to…

This report summarizes activities and findings of a federally funded center at the Research Triangle Institute (North Carolina) reviewing current knowledge concerning nonpharmacological interventions for improving educational outcomes for students with attention deficit disorders (ADD). For each of the seven topics reviewed, the report provides a…

The Refugee Women's Alliance, a nonprofit organization helping refugee and immigrant women achieve self-sufficiency in the United States, has developed a class integrating English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction and discussion of family issues, child-rearing, and related problems in a new cultural context. The project focuses on developing…

This guide presents suggestions and materials for providing inservice training about assistive technology for parents and professionals working with infants and toddlers with or at-risk for disabilities. An introduction provides an overview and includes a variety of forms and surveys, a sample inservice agenda, and a list of workshop materials.…

The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is addressing problems of evaluation of family literacy programs through portfolio assessment. Beginning in fall 1991, 15 programs began using portfolios to document parent-child interactions. This guide provides a description of the introduction of portfolio assessment into these programs and…

Over a decade ago, the Minnesota state legislature funded the Council on Quality Education to create nine exemplary and experimental pilot programs to support young children and their families. One of the early models was a family-oriented, structured preschool activity that featured weekly 2-hour sessions during which parents of 4-year-olds…