Provides a historical overview of parents as educators in ancient times and the middle ages. Discusses influential theories of child rearing in the United States and the history of parent education, particularly the focus on parent education that emerged in federal programs in the 1960s. Notes the continuing need for school-home collaboration in…

Ira Gordon's parent education model began to be applied in the Follow Through Parent Education Program in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1960s. Parent educators from the community made home visits and initiated home-school learning cycles. The assessment and future of the program are discussed. (BC)

For parent involvement initiatives to be successful, they should be part of a focused school improvement process. In New Haven's School Development Program, parents are involved at all levels of school life, through general support of educational programs, participation in daily activities, and school planning and management. (BC)

Studied connections between parent involvement programs, teachers' attitudes, and teachers' practices in inner-city elementary and middle schools. Examined patterns according to academic subject, classroom organization, and level of support for parent involvement. Found that each variable has implications for the strengths of school programs and…

Describes the format of, and topics covered in, the Partners in Play training model, which is designed to enrich children's play in child care settings through the development of play training for parents and caregivers. Training focuses on techniques and strategies that help adults understand and facilitate play. (BB)

This article describes several model programs that use telephone technology to link parents with professionals such as speech language pathologists. Strategies for developing and implementing a telephone answering machine call-in program to increase parent involvement in educational and clinical settings are offered, as are suggestions regarding…

The Preschool Development Inventory (PDI) obtains parents' assessments of their children's present development and possible problems. Of 220 children (ages 3 and 4), 11% obtained low General Development Scale scores, whereas 14% showed potential major obstacles to learning. Data concerning the PDI's sensitivity/specificity indicate that parents'…

Although devolution (decentralization) policies assume that school communities will work collaboratively to make decisions appropriate to the local context, cooperative processes do not occur automatically. This paper outlines a case study of a school committee's efforts to develop a discipline policy at an Australian elementary school. Committee…

Analyzes teachers' and students' perceptions of how participants became empowered in shared governance schools belonging to the Georgia-based League of Professional Schools. Includes descriptions of principals' related leadership practices. Participants reported increased communication quality and frequency both horizontally and vertically.…

Describes a science program that encourages elementary students and their families to participate in hands-on science activities at home. The program was designed to strengthen links between home and school and to foster communication between parents and children. Currently 15 schools in Nova Scotia involving 30 classrooms participate in the…

Describes ways in which Hawaii's Kamehameha Prekindergarten Education Program (PREP) considers culture in developing program components. PREP makes connections to the home culture an ongoing process. Incorporating culture into educational activities for preschoolers occurs in three areas: making connections through familiar materials, language,…

Describes two early intervention projects used on the Navajo reservation. A Head Start teacher training project uses innovative methods built on the Navajo oral tradition. A parents-as-first-teachers project involves Navajo parents reading culturally relevant material to their children, and children reconstructing the story content. (BC)

This study of 142 early interventionists examined self-competence in working with families, value placed on family roles, and concern about family-centered practices, and explored their relationship with experience, discipline, and job category. Nurses and social workers scored higher than educators and other health care professionals in several…

Describes a high school project that won an award in the 1991 A&E (Arts and Entertainment) National Teacher Grant Competition. The program, which introduced art history into the U.S. studies curriculum, involved cooperative research, analysis of art in the local museum, group presentations, parental participation, and the production of a…

Telephone interviews were conducted with parents of 1,601 children to investigate the utility of a statewide (Ohio), first-step screening procedure called Developmental Profile II. With developmental delay specified as the outcome variable, six independent variables representing environmental and biological determinants were identified.…