Out-of-school time (OST) programming can be a crucial asset to families in rural areas where resources to support children's learning and development are often insufficient to meet the community's needs. OST programs that offer youth in rural communities a safe and supportive adult-supervised environment--along with various growth-enhancing…

Given expectations for higher standards teachers must find ways to improve family involvement and build a community atmosphere within the classroom. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the implementation of a family involvement program into a first grade classroom. Epstein's six types of parent involvement formed the theoretical…

Little has been documented about the needs for information, guidance, and support of parents of school-age children with hearing loss, particularly those whose children are about to enter or are in the often turbulent stage of adolescence. The purpose of this study was to provide new knowledge about the specific needs of parents of adolescents and…

This "Fourth Annual Report Card" marks a new chapter for the Boston Opportunity Agenda. For the first time, the Boston Opportunity Agenda is reporting student outcomes across Boston Public Schools and Catholic and charter schools. This provides a comprehensive baseline view of the education pipeline for the city's K-12 students. The…

Parents want their child to do well in school. They also want their child to be healthy and avoid behaviors that are risky or harmful. Through their guidance and support, parents can have great influence on their child's health and learning. But they also have important allies in this effort--the caring adults in their child's school. Research…

This Internet-based study involved experimental manipulation of family-centeredness in written early intervention evaluation reports and employed a 3 x 4-vignette factorial design with 1 participant variable (role: parent, professional, parent-professional) and 1 randomly assigned independent variable (level of family-centeredness in report…

Early intervention and early childhood special education professionals espouse the need for authentic assessment and meaningful family involvement, as well as relationship-based and routines-based intervention. This article explores a play-based approach to assessment that reflects these values by using the Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment,…

Strengthening the entire family is a fundamental goal of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Caring Across Communities initiative, administered by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Many immigrant and refugee students have lived through traumatic situations, but they benefit from being part of close-knit families and caring…

This article discusses issues related to socioeconomic aspects of early childhood education work. It seeks to increase the visibility of equity issues and to encourage discussion of this important aspect of families' and children's lives. It offers some concrete suggestions for one's classroom and explores the author's own belief and attitudes…

Family involvement has been identified as a best practice in the treatment of schizophrenia. Yet studies show a small number of families of individuals with schizophrenia are involved in treatment. In this mixed method study, community mental health practitioners from different disciplines responded to a quantitative survey (N = 88), a qualitative…

Objective: Information on the shortened, 20-item version of the Perceived Social Support Scale (S-PSSS) is scarce. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the S-PSSS Family (SSfa) and Friends (SSfr) subscales. Method: Because of their common coping method of social support, a cross-sectional sample of Alzheimer's…

Today's educational environment requires teachers who understand teaching and learning, have strong content knowledge, and can make connections between life experiences and the curriculum. Teachers are expected to be continually learning to improve their practice. Professional learning is essential in this process. Research on professional…

There is a need within health, physical education, recreation, dance, and sport programs to increase community engagement via experiential learning. The Chase Charlie Races are presented in this article as a model pedagogical strategy to engage community youths and families in a training program and running event to help promote fitness. Key…

For young people with disabilities, crossing the bridge to adulthood will be empowering instead of intimidating--when their support teams know the essentials of effective transition planning. Now all the fundamentals of well-crafted transition plans are collected in one concise quick-guide, straight from one of the top authorities on helping young…

The purpose of this study was to identify obstacles which prevent active participation at home and at school for economically disadvantaged families. Parental involvement has been recognized as one of the most important variables influencing student academic achievement (Henrich & Gadaire, 2008; Jeynes, 2007; Stewart, 2008). Recent history…