This paper reports on the progress of eight Chicago-based community initiatives designed to redefine social services and broaden social responsibility for the development of children and families. The paper has three sections describing: (1) general background on the children, youth, and families initiative; (2) early lessons from an initiative in…

Nine schools report in this document on the challenges, successes, and lessons they have experienced while setting up Family Centers and bringing health and social services into their schools. These schools are part of a professional network of urban schools begun and facilitated by the Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the…

This paper describes a model in-service training program for assisting faculty members in functioning as academic counselors (as differentiated from their traditional role as academic advisors) during a pre-enrollment freshman counseling and advising program: the first stage of academic advisement. A model for assessing the impact of the training…

This presentation describes the distance education program at Memorial University (Newfoundland), which operates the Telemedicine Centre, including an audiographic, teleconference network that uses a combination of hardware and software to turn an MS DOS computer into an interactive long distance blackboard. Topics covered by the presentation…

The theme of this convention was the impact of policy changes on practices in early childhood education worldwide, and particularly in New Zealand. Nine keynote addresses considered issues relevant to early childhood education. A total of 53 papers presented at the convention discussed: (1) cultural issues in early childhood education; (2)…

This report summarizes a meeting of local school officials and Head Start directors from across the country to discuss ways to improve children's experience of transition from Head Start to public school. In a keynote address, Sharon Kagan discussed the importance of transitions, the lessons history has taught educators about transitions, and…

This report presents a concise and useful overview of the issue of business/education partnerships to develop and implement workplace literacy programs. The first chapter focuses on the challenges of developing a literate work force for Florida. It considers the changing workplace and work force, Florida trends in illiteracy, the impact of…

This report on transition services for students with disabilities in Nebraska schools begins with an outline of the development of transition programming as part of special education services, noting federal legislation in this area and the importance of intra-agency and inter-agency cooperative agreements. The role of career education in the…

A process description and preliminary evaluation are provided for the Weed and Seed initiative in Springfield (Illinois). This initiative involved local, state, and federal resources in projects that included (1) facility improvement, (2) drug prevention, (3) youth education and child care, (4) jobs and vocational training, (5) resident…

Teachers' and developers' descriptions of intergenerational literacy programs for immigrants are collected here. Topics addressed include appropriate program design, the quality of intergenerational collaboration, student journals, learner-centered curriculum design, traditional and personal storytelling as a literacy approach, education and…

This newsletter on educational innovation contains a reflection on educators' time limitations, a personal examination of the "teacher as coach" analogy, and several brief descriptions of programs in school renewal, innovation, and teacher education around the nation. Shari Castle and Gary D. Watts argue, in "Temporal Tensions: The Tyranny of…

This paper describes the implementation of three major parent education programs and their strategies. Following an introduction to the efforts made in the Philippines to empower parents, the paper briefly describes the Programme of Cooperation and the Education for All National Plan of Action. Three case studies, all of which use different parent…

The New Jersey Department of Education asked Research for Better Schools, Inc., to design and conduct a data-collection process that would generate information about the programs and practices in the school districts participating in the state's Operation School Renewal (OSR) in 1986-87. The primary purpose was to provide descriptive program data…

A practicum aimed to increase academic competence in math and/or reading and to improve study skills of 27 at-risk students referred by their classroom teachers to the school resource specialist. A before-school peer and cross-age tutoring program for at-risk students was developed. Proteges were monitored on the usage of the following study…

This report synthesizes first-phase evaluation results of the Teenage Parent Demonstration program. This program, whose cornerstone is case management, responded to three concerns: (1) rising welfare caseloads; (2) persistently high rates of teenage pregnancies and births; and (3) the high probability that teenage parents will go onto welfare and…