Highlights some of the activities involved in the celebration of Head Start's twenty-fifth anniversary. (BB)

Concerned about students' poor performance on national tests, one elementary school principal and her staff launched Project READ (Read Exciting Adventures Daily). The program allots 20 minutes daily for schoolwide reading and features home reading contracts, student participation awards, and theme weeks. For one event, the principal dons a…

School communications are becoming increasingly sensitive and complex. Although research identifies several purposes for communications, there is little agreement on a common definition or best methods to increase effectiveness. This article explores communication methods currently being used by South Carolina superintendents and implications of…

Parents of highly gifted children are offered advice from the work of Leta Hollingworth (1886-1939) concerning helping the child accept his/her differences, reconcile opposites, and do no harm. Parents need to appreciate their own differences and support appropriate educational programs. (DB)

Black parents' role and involvement in their children's college education need to be recognized, welcomed, and encouraged. The developmental needs of parents in general as well as culture-specific needs should be considered in developing strategies for minority parent involvement. (SK)

A survey of 2,956 teachers in 92 Illinois high schools found increasing amounts of assigned homework, discrepancies in assignments among curricular tracks, little variety in assignments, need for improved student responses, teacher diligence in reviewing homework, lack of coordination at district, school, and departmental levels, and lack of…

Discusses why strong parental involvement programs are difficult to implement. Suggests guidelines for beginning programs of parental involvement in reading curriculum. (MM)

Suggests that communication between teachers and parents and other community members is noticeably enhanced when the following indicators can be clearly observed among the communicators: warmth, empathy, respect, genuineness, listening, and concrete practicality. (MG)

Describes several projects designed to involve parents in their child's English education. (MM)

A study of the relationship between parental opportunities for and management of children's peer interactions and the social competence of their child suggests important links between parental opportunities provided for play and the peer social system. (JOW)

The article stresses the value of recognizing that the most important educational resource is the human resource of teachers, parents, and children and of involving these people in all aspects of the special educational program. (DB)

With adequate guidance and support, parents can be surprisingly effective helpers in a schoolwide writing assessment. Allentown (Pennsylvania) School District relied on parent volunteers to evaluate the overall effectiveness of ninth graders' essays describing a meaningful experience. Because parents' expectations were unbiased, they found…

Schools enjoying strong parental support have parental-involvement programs in place and actively seek to involve parents. Such schools usually have a staff member, frequently a parent, whose task is to establish, manage, and maintain successful engagements among individuals, groups of parents, and the school. Darien, Connecticut's innovative high…

A New Jersey high school administrator explains how he kept the school board from slashing the educational technology budget. A committee of administrators, teachers, parents, and students had students videotape computer and other activities and present the videotape at a board meeting. By targeting outdated equipment, the committee obtained…

Parental coaching with homework of gifted children is considered. The coaching process involves planning, teaching, reflecting, and applying what has been learned to the next situation. The parent's role is described as providing the right environment for working, providing help when desired, and being nonjudgmental. (SW)