In 1989, the Quality Education Project was initiated in seven Mississippi school districts through a Department of Education grant. QEP is designed to meet local families' specific needs. In each locality, teachers, parents, administrators, and community representatives develop a plan, with support from area businesses, churches, and civic groups.…

Community-based education can improve citizen attitudes. This conclusion was reached by study to explore the basis for attitudes about school performance and input in policymaking expressed by citizens in a community with an identified "community-based" education program and those in a community without such a program. (Author/JOW)

Home-school partnerships provide a strong support system. Besides encouraging parents, teachers, and students to work together for more effective learning and teaching, the system helps parents understand their emerging adolescents. A rural Pennsylvania middle school's "Steps to Success" program offers various activities involved with…

Randomly assigned 147 families with aggressive child (age 4 to 9 years) to standard family treatment (SFT) focusing exclusively on parental management or to enhanced family treatment (EFT) that also promoted discussions of adult issues. EFT produced significantly lower dropout rate than SFT overall but particularly for high-adversity families.…

When surveying parents on six types of involvement, the Family Center at Johns Hopkins University found that respondents were uninterested in regular school visits or participation in decision making but eager to help their children at home. In response, two researchers developed TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork), an interactive…

Virginia sued the U.S. Department of Education over withdrawal of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding in a dispute involving discipline of a disabled student. Disciplinary safeguards for students with disability-related misconduct are well established by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in "Honig v. Doe." Congress…

In a large Australian preschool, perceptions of parents (n=41) regarding their role in their children's education were studied and classified into four groups, based in part on parent ideas about the relative contributions and responsibilities of parents and teachers. Parent participation in preschool activities was found to be related to role…

Discusses how to plan and organize for volunteers and the many ways volunteers can help to improve reading instruction in the classroom. (MG)

Describes an innovative approach to building a school community taking hold at a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, elementary school. Called Parents in Partnership, the program uses a Big Brother/Big Sister model to link parents of incoming kindergarten children with more experienced parents at the school. The parents form informal, personal networks…

The Alliance for Achievement Network has given the principal of Kingston (Illinois) Elementary School a framework for bridging the gap between school and home. Since September 1990, she and other school council members have worked to adopt a school constitution, select school-community values, write goal statements, and set expectations for…

Determines the type and number of words that are in the environmental vocabularies of a selected group of second-grade students. Discusses the importance of parents and teachers assisting children to develop their environmental vocabularies. (RS)

Like British morning programs of recent decades, upstate New York program encourages parents and community residents to get involved in children's education. Parents and community residents--watercolor artists, auto mechanics, doll collectors, and others--are welcomed and valued in schools. Program's purpose is learning, not entertainment. Topics…

A Vermont middle school, a grade 7-8 union (regional) school, developed an orientation program to meet the needs of over 300 incoming seventh-grade students coming from 9 elementary schools in 5 different districts, plus a parochial school. The program is planned by a coordinating council and a student-guidance team; emphasis is on clear-cut…

This study, involving parents of 165 children under 6-years old, revealed internal consistency and test-retest reliability of 9 of the 11 dimensions constituting the Parent Interview for Autism. Six of the test dimensions differentiated young children with autism from a developmentally comparable group with mental retardation. (Author/JDD)

Describes an interactive videoconference on change in local mathematics education to train participants in involving local schools and communities in educational reform. Includes a checklist to evaluate students and teachers titled "What Should I Look for in a Math Classroom?" (SM)