The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development (OCD) has practiced university-community engagement activities for 30 years. This has included hundreds of specific projects conducted with community partners, all funded by outside grants. Based on our experience, we describe some lessons learned regarding the operation of a…

This booklet provides a summary of purposes and goals of the Education for Parenthood Project, along with a summary of the evaluation services to be implemented in order to effectively make decisions about funding and possible project modifications. Decision questions are outlined, and information needs are elaborated. A method for disseminating…

Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) provides an integrated system of child-centered, family-focused, and community-based services targeted to at-risk children from birth to age seven at twelve sites across the country. To access families that are often not in the mainstream of service access and use, SESS programs partner with primary care…

SPECIAL PROGRAMS IN REMEDIAL READING, EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, SUMMER SCHOOL INSTRUCTION, AND SCHOOL-COMMUNITY COORDINATION ARE EVALUATED. ALTHOUGH THE REMEDIAL READING PROGRAM DID NOT ESTABLISH THE SUPERIORITY OF ANY PARTICULAR METHOD OF TEACHING, IT DEMONSTRATED THE VALUE OF HAVING A READING SPECIALIST ON THE SCHOOL STAFF. MOST 4-YEAR-OLD…

The Junior Police program utilized non-academic youth interests as its foundation. The project filled the need for a youth organization, a youth clearinghouse, and more aid to delinquent and predelinquent youth to redirect them into ways of thinking and acting beneficial both to themselves and to the community. The objectives of the program were…

Designed to help parents and teachers think beyond the ordinary ways in which parent-family involvement in education is considered and approached, this book describes 34 operational parent-family involvement programs in preschools and in elementary, middle, and high schools. It also describes programs run by school districts and communities. Among…

The word "summer" brings to mind images of a relaxed, unstructured season--a time markedly different from other seasons of the year. In the United States, we have a particularly entrenched notion that summer is different--a notion reflected in popular assumptions about summer as a "break" and reinforced by carefree depictions…