This book examines the efforts of Valley Interfaith--a community-based organization in the south Texas borderlands--to improve the living conditions of low-income residents and immigrants and the public schools their children attend. Valley Interfaith is unusual in that it crosses the boundary separating the worlds of community organizing and…

This manual, designed to help public libraries in Arizona to plan their summer reading programs for children, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Arizona Reading Program. The material in the manual is prepared for libraries to adapt for their own uses. Chapters of the manual include: (1) Introductory Materials; (2) Goals, Objectives and…

Project Leadership Excellence Achievement and Performance (LEAP) was designed to respond to the needs of gifted students enrolled in secondary schools in rural areas. This paper describes Project LEAP's implementation in four rural Oklahoma high schools with high American Indian enrollments and high percentages of low-income families and limited…

The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is a grassroots initiative to increase opportunities for families to be more involved with their children's learning at school and at home, to strengthen schools, and to improve student achievement levels. This CD-ROM from the Partnership contains materials and resources on family involvement in…

The school reform movement has been a major societal and political agenda item for nearly two decades. As a result of the pressure stemming from the movement to make schools more effective, many changes have occurred. The most obvious of these changes is an increased emphasis on assessment. Furthermore, school counselors, like teachers and…

This document presents an action plan to solve the problem of inadequate English-as-a-Second/Other-Language (ESOL) instruction in high school content area courses and to increase effort and motivation among ESOL students. ESOL students often do not have sufficient command of English to do very well in content-oriented courses (such as history,…

In 1998 the authors published research with NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) "Family Numeracy Adds Up" showing how parents and children had gained from fourteen pilot family numeracy programmes. It showed strong evidence of the double benefits of work with families. Children have an early boost in their learning and…

Describes a comprehensive program utilizing pull-out programs, enrichment, and individualized mentorship contracts for gifted/talented students, grades 1-12, in Poland School District (Ohio). Participant selection factors include parent nominations, teacher recommendations, achievement test scores, peer identification, and self-evaluation.…

Defines primary prevention in mental health as the building of health and competencies from an early age to prevent adverse psychological outcomes. Describes potential approaches to primary prevention for young children, such as early detection and intervention; helper therapy; mental health education; competence training; social system…

Discusses basic differences between programs for special education students in urban areas and in rural areas and identifies critical needs for delivery of services to special education students in rural and remote areas as: teacher recruitment and development; services to exceptional students; legislation and funding; and parent and community…

The Rough Rock Demonstration School special education staff used videotaped vignettes of special education services to communicate with parents and obtain referrals of possibly handicapped children, especially children not in school. The process, involving personal communication and an identification specialist, helped recruit seven children for…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics curriculum standards recommend encouraging active learning, providing diverse topics, creating supportive environments, and offering ongoing assessment. The article describes how some people implement the standards using such strategies as making math physical, noting math in everyday life, sending…

Recounts author's life as wife of an abusive alcoholic and mother of three preschool children. Describes how, through exposure to Head Start, the author provided her children with a preschool education, gained personal self-esteem, educated herself, left the abusive relationship, and ultimately returned to Head Start as a teacher. (SD)

In response to a Council of Australian Governors' proposed national framework for children's services, the Australian Early Childhood Association has prepared a paper that sets out its views on the objectives, outcomes, and features of such a framework. The Association strongly believes that the interests of children should be the paramount…

The Baltimore School and Family Connections Project is a collaborative effort to design comprehensive partnership programs and evaluate their results. This case study explores one school's efforts to involve middle-grades students and their families in learning activities at home during the summer break. Marginal students who worked on the home…