In January 2013, Rhode Island's Central Falls School District (CFSD) was awarded a $3 million Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant, named "We Are A Village," focused on developing an early childhood education culture (from pre-K to grade 3) where families would feel welcome, valued, and…

Researchers are increasingly interested in the issue of school accountability. Despite this, program standards for afterschool programs are not as fully developed as in other fields. This study bridges that gap and presents the results from a study to identify benchmarks and indicators for high quality afterschool programs. This research employed…

High-quality care in the earliest years of life has been shown to relate to positive developmental outcomes for children, including improved early academic skills, social-emotional competencies, and cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, the early care experiences of many children are not always high quality; rather, research suggests that…

A lot has been learned about effective approaches to realizing intended out-of-school time program outcomes. As program practitioners consider fostering evidence-based practices, program administrators, staff, and stakeholders must keep in mind that it is difficult to change behavior overnight, even among children. Efforts to improve outcomes for…

Research Findings: Research suggests that early care and education programs are most effective when they include strong components of family involvement. The Center for the Study of Social Policy recommended that early care and education programs build family-centered practices to strengthen families and reduce the incidence of child abuse and…

Purpose: This article reports the results of a randomized, controlled evaluation of Partners in Caregiving in a Special Care Environment, an intervention designed to improve communication and cooperation between staff and families of residents in nursing home dementia programs. Design and Methods: Participants included 388 family members and 384…

This report describes the design and implementation of the three interventions tested in Project Upgrade, one of four experiments conducted as part of the Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies. The evaluation was a multi-site, multi-year effort to determine whether and how different child care subsidy policies and procedures and quality…

This article summarizes findings from the Macomb Project's 15 years of research and provision of model demonstration computer application services to young children with disabilities, their families, and service delivery staff. Staff training, administrative support, technology assessments, family involvement, and transition services are all…

This paper examines relationships and interactions among the consumer (with a developmental disability), his or her family, and agency staff as they impact the consumer's life course and lifestyle. Approaches and activities to enhance effective relationships include setting policies that support these relationships, training staff with this…

This commentary on "The Effects of Family-Centered Service Coordination: A Social Validity Study" (Romer), discusses the challenges of implementing family-centered service coordination and variables such as caseload size, models of service coordination, and models of staff development that might have an impact on these challenges. (CR)

This user's guide for professionals using Project Lifelong Learning staff development modules is designed to accompany the documentary on lifelong learning in the family, one of three half-hour television documentary programs intended for broadcast and for general public discussion activities. It introduces the project, the purpose of which is to…

This technical assistance manual describes school-based outreach strategies that involve parents in preparing youth with special needs for postschool jobs and independence. A model of preventive education is featured which stresses that postschool problems of unemployment and community adjustment can be anticipated and can, therefore, be treated…

This report describes Minnesota's thirteen Council on Quality Education (CQE) Early Childhood/Family Education programs from the perspective of external evaluation researchers. Data were obtained from personal on-site interviews with 40 program staff members; personal interviews with 40 local program Advisory Board participants and local school…

This paper examines how various elements of five early- childhood-to-elementary school transition programs are being developed and carried out. Five transition programs were identified and investigated in regard to shared leadership and decisionmaking among stakeholders, comprehensive and integrated services, family involvement and empowerment,…

This report includes the background papers developed for an invitational workshop on mental health program development for minority youth and their families, and a summary of the recommendations made and actions to be taken. Section I presents an overall framework and an overview of the issues that were explored in greater depth at the workshop.…