There's parent involvement and then there's parent involvement. There's the kind that has parents volunteering their time in schools, making costumes, or organizing and staffing the school carnival fund-raiser. This is helpful activity by any measure--helpful in the service of kids and not to be minimized. But there are other levels of involvement…

Family involvement in children's education is fundamental for academic success. This study extended the research on the Family Involvement Questionnaire for Early Childhood (FIQ-EC) by further developing the measure and testing its use with low-income urban elementary students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses affirmed three salient…

The purposes of this study were to determine the extent and types of parent involvement in Head Start programs, and to examine the relations between parent participation and family, teacher and classroom characteristics. Parents (n = 1131) and teachers (n = 59) from four Head Start programs participated. Data were gathered through volunteer logs,…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between school-, neighborhood-, and family-level resources and children's academic achievement, and to identify the role played by father involvement in mediating contextual influences on children's learning. A subsample of 1334 families with children between the ages of 5 and…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who are educated in integrated settings are often at risk for school failure because of their inability to remain attentive, complete tasks and assignments, and accomplish homework. In other words, they are characterized by their inability to manage their academic and social behavior. The…

In this article, the author reports how parents of Maryland students are undergoing mathematics refresher courses in order to help their children with math lessons. As high-stakes grade-advancement and graduation exams have multiplied across the land, so have courses for adults who feel unable to help their kids. Though the trend is still new to…

In this article, the author offers suggestions on how to create a father-friendly environment: (1) Sign men up, too; (2) Get out your message; (3) Say it loud; (4) Say it often; and (5) Just ask. The author offers ways for staff to make dads feel welcome, such as: (1) Meet and greet dads at the door; (2) Praise children's progress; and (3)…

A parent training program pilot designed and implemented to develop early literacy skills of bilingual Hispanic pre-kindergarten students is described and analyzed through a case study approach. The program incorporated parent collaboration, bilingual literacy training and accessible literary themes to improve literacy prior to kindergarten.…

Traditional parent-teacher conferences and student-led conferences are tools schools employ to convey student progress with parents. The student-led conference offers a valuable means for increasing student responsibility which allows students to take ownership in schooling, which in turn helped improve parent involvement and student motivation.…

The "Struggle for Identity in Today's Schools" examines cultural recognition and the struggle for identity in America's schools. In particular, the contributing authors focus on the recognition and misrecognition as antagonistic cultural forces that work to shape, and at times distort identity. What surfaces throughout the chapters are…

The use of Student Information Systems (SIS) to enhance school administration and manage student performance in K-12 education has received increased attention in recent years. As SIS become more integrated operational tools in schools, many school districts have to make decisions about the extent to which SIS affects student achievement and about…

The Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) is a special entity within the National League of Cities (NLC). The YEF Institute helps municipal leaders take action on behalf of the children, youth, and families in their communities. The YEF Institute's first-ever report on The State of City Leadership for Children and Families…

Much evidence has suggested that parents and educators often have very different perceptions about the reasons for low student performance, the appropriate role for parents in the school, and the role of the principal (Abrams and Gibbs, 2000). Conflicting opinions about the parent role in the school often creates misunderstanding and frustration.…

This study examined superintendents' or designees' perceptions in light of NCLB (2002) and to understand parental involvement through the lens of Epstein's Framework of Parent Involvement (1992, 1995, 2002). The central problem was that despite parental involvement legislation, implementation and effectiveness of policies, and programs varies…

This study examined mothers' and fathers' reports of their time spent in their school-age children's care and academic work and the relationships between socioeconomic status and social support variables with fathers' time spent in children's care and academic work within two-parent Mexican immigrant families. Mother and father dyads from 79…