Empowering Families was focused on infusing the Providence Public School District (PPSD) elementary schools with an intervention centered on the Mind in the Making (MITM) training, designed to build the capacity of families, teachers, and schools to understand how children's executive function impacts social-emotional and cognitive growth. Data…

This paper reports on some data on the effects of screen-based interactivity on children's engagement with storybook apps during family shared book reading that were gathered in a 2-year, small-scale ethnographic case study in Spain. Data analysis focuses on the complex interplay between the storybook app's interactive features and the children's…

The brief explains how exposing young children to early math concepts supports their development of reasoning and problem solving skills and later success in and out of school. It describes the unique ways each of five family engagement programs funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation developed, tested, and integrated early math learning into…

Educational reform efforts are necessary for state and local educational agencies to prepare students to meet the demands of the 21st century and to follow federal and state education laws. In efforts to support low-performing schools, education officials have concentrated educational reform on replicating the characteristics of high-performing…

The State Family Outcomes Measurement System Framework (S-FOMS) is a framework originally developed by the Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center that identifies seven key components of a high-quality family outcomes measurement system at the state level. This document contains background information about the framework's seven components, 15…

The author of this article asks: What is readiness for kindergarten? How do we know when a child is ready? Unfortunately, as with many topics in education reform and improvement, policy makers ignore the complex questions about readiness and instead focus narrowly on select variables. The focus for kindergarten readiness is on select literacy and…

During adolescence, teenagers try a range of risk behaviors including smoking, drinking, and the use of soft drugs. Because substance use contributes to an unhealthy lifestyle of teenagers on the short term and can lead to serious health problems on the longer term, prevention in this target group is important. This chapter provides an overview of…

Afterschool programs can help students develop knowledge to enhance academic success while also providing them with opportunities to develop social and problem-solving skills. In our work with afterschool programs, we have seen that positive relationships with school-day personnel, families, community members, and between and among program staff…

Today we know much more about how children learn than ever before, including the types of motivation and support they need to thrive, the ways that digital media and technology enhance their creativity, and the ways that families and educators, both within and outside of school settings, can share responsibility to facilitate new knowledge and…

Principals are critical to school improvement efforts, yet few studies aim to elicit their perspectives on what contributes to teaching, learning, and broader school improvement. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to elicit principals' perspectives on (a) teacher and school staff needs, and (b) student needs, in an effort to uncover…

Children's early home learning experiences are important influences on children's adjustment and achievement in the early years of school. This study explores the relationships between parental beliefs about school readiness, family engagement in home learning activities, on children's attitudes to school as reported by parents, and children's…

The successful inclusion of students with special needs in physical education classes requires much planning and preparation. Lack of preparation of physical education teachers working in inclusive settings in Brazil has demonstrated the need for specialized training in strategies for implementing inclusion. The goal of this study was to identify,…

ESOL teacher Barbara Gottshalk frequently hears well-intentioned but misinformed comments and questions about English language learners and her teaching field. In this article, she clarifies the misconceptions revealed by 10 common remarks--for example, "The students will never learn English if they don't speak it in their home,"…

Research indicates that partnerships between schools and neighborhood communities support student learning, improve schools, and strengthen families and neighborhoods. These partnerships expand the traditional educational mission of the school to include health and social services for children and their families and to involve the broader…

School-community partnerships are currently in the forefront of place-based urban reform efforts. But the literature on these partnerships indicates a variety of models that require different commitments and resources. Through a close review of the literature, we developed a typology of four partnership categories organized from the least to the…