To be truly effective, early childhood educational and day care policy must reflect the perceptions, views, and concerns of parents. Because parents are their children's primary teachers, there is a high correlation between parent involvement and their children's academic achievement, and a constituency of the family would make a significant…

This manual is a resource book for organizers and leaders and parent groups who want to explore specific strategies to use in helping children combine summer fun with summer learning. The guide contains material necessary to conduct a 1- or 1.5-hour session on how parents can help children enjoy the summer months while they improve their social…

Noting that parents are their children's first and most important teachers, this digest provides suggestions and recommends resources to help parents become involved in their children's literacy development. The digest discusses visiting the public library; reading aloud and modeling reading; playing with children; listening to children read;…

Public schools in Manitoba (Canada) are encountering an increasing number of students who are considered to be educationally at risk. This paper addresses the provision of effective services relating to at-risk youth and the prevention of early school dropouts. The paper's first section covers the circumstances and conditions associated with early…

This report documents the progress that school districts in Kentucky have made in implementing provisions of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. This bill mandated that all elementary schools become non-graded, multi-age, multi-ability primary schools by the fall of 1993. During the spring of 1993, observations and teacher surveys were…

This paper describes effective practices for developing Individual Education Plans in small rural schools along the U.S.-Mexican border. Since immigration levels in this area are high and many immigrants are limited-speakers or nonspeakers of English, border school districts are concerned about issues involving communication with parents and…

This book examines the nature of comprehensive, large scale historical and social changes that contextualize educational reform, and it amplifies the meaning of lessons learned by those who have assisted in change efforts. It also examines how the rhetoric of educational change may fall short of the reality, as translated to processes and…

This practicum focused on the problem of lack of involvement of the parents of 32 mainstreamed fifth grade students with special learning needs. Evening workshops were conducted for parents and their at-risk, mainstreamed students in fifth grade. Sessions focused on the use of computers, manipulatives, make and take home instructional games, study…

Three inter-related phenomena push the need for educational change and school improvement. These are the change from an agrarian to an industrial, and from an industrial to an information society; the changing demographics that see an increase in student racial and cultural diversity; and the need for new services for low income students. The…

Success Connection was an 18-month program aimed at promoting self-sufficiency among high-risk youth ages 16-22 in Yakima Valley, Washington. Self-sufficiency was defined as being employed, having improved educational goals, and not requiring public assistance. The program was a collaborative effort among the Yakima Valley Opportunities…

Harmony in Career Learning and Scholastic System (Project HI-CLASS) was a Transitional Bilingual Education Title VII-funded program in its fifth and final year in 1992-93. The project offered instructional and support services to 641 students of limited English proficiency (LEP) at three sites, all of which had many immigrant students, in…

This report assesses the Acquisition of Learning by Facilitating Academics (Project ALFA), which is designed to assist the academic progress of Haitian students at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, New York. Project ALFA served a total of 62 students of limited English proficiency who had attended an English-speaking school system for less than 5…

This practicum was designed to change parents' attitudes toward their children's learning, so that parents would understand the importance of student-centered and student-directed learning activities and have a better understanding of their children's actual learning activities. An initial telephone survey of four parents of students in a combined…

An evaluation review was done of the training activities of the Creating a New Approach to Learning Project (Project CANAL) during the first half of Year 4 of the project. The review covered types of training opportunities that were available, observations on participation by members of the groups for whom the training was designed, some…

A study examined the correspondence between parent involvement and second graders' reading achievement. It also examined the relationship between students' IQ scores and their reading achievement. Evaluation instruments included the SAT and the O-LSAT. Parents completed a parent involvement questionnaire, and two key informants were interviewed.…