The community education program developed in San Antonio, Texas, was designed to work with the Hispanic population. Community educators found nonthreatening ways to bring parents into the school, to get them involved in their children's education, and to encourage them to take classes themselves. (JOW)

Best preschool programs provide both developmentally appropriate curricula and school-based family support services. This article describes four exemplary, innovative, and low-cost early education programs in Kentucky, Colorado, Iowa, and Florida that integrate family support, day care, and health and social services. These districts had visionary…

A teacher working in a school with an open-door policy discusses some difficulties with this arrangement. She had trouble finding a private place, including the staff room, to talk intimately with other teachers, had to build her schedule around parent helpers, and noted some unethical treatment of children. Parent involvement is no elixir. The…

Describes parents' and school psychologists' perspective on 33 parent-involvement activities aimed at enhancing students' school success. Although parents' mean ratings for use were higher than school psychologists' mean ratings of feasibility of implementation on 94% of activities, a high degree of similarity exists in rank order of activities…

Examines the experiences of families in which fathers care for their newborn infants when mothers return to work after childbirth. Documents the hours of care provided by fathers while mothers are at work, the simultaneous use of other child-care arrangements, and the average savings per family. Explores three possible motivations for families to…

Describes parents' involvement in implementing a basic-schools initiative that integrates proven best research-based practices for elementary education. Data from individual and focus-group interviews and participant observations show that school personnel and parents engaged in traditional involvement methods as a foundation to involvement in…

Discusses how all children need the kind of hope that stories can give them. Suggests that educators and writers have been given the responsibility for nourishing the spiritual and intellectual lives of children. Describes the author's life growing up in a difficult time and how literature gave her hope as a child. (SC)

Uses data from a national survey of U. S. high school seniors to investigate the relationship of religious perceptions and behavior to several school, career' and leisure variables. Seniors' positive perceptions of religion and frequent attendance at religious services were related to positive parental involvement, positive school attitudes and…

States a review of articles on the Chicago study helps refocus attention on the idea that relationships are the basis for learning. Notes that children want to learn from and imitate important adults in their lives. Articles suggest that getting teachers to see and nurture every student's potential, plus promoting parent involvement, seems to be…

Study examines the effects of adolescents' vocational and relationship experiences, adherence to non-traditional values, and parental divorce and involvement on adolescent soft drug use. Results reveal that vocational and relationship experiences in adolescence correlate with the use of soft drugs and adherence to non-conventional norms and values…

Presents information on a project emphasizing the importance of parental understanding and support in implementing change by creating a program for building parents' understanding of mathematics and assessment that would enable them to make informed decisions about their children's instructional progress. (ASK)

Summarizes results for parents of the original evaluation and the follow-up of Family Literacy Demonstration Programmes at four sites in Wales and England. Finds that parents benefited in employment, study, qualifications, literacy, and ability to help their children, and involvement with their children's schools. (RS)

Explores families' engagement with their children's science and technology learning at home over a 6-month period, and illuminates both the nature and the educational significance of what families do. Indicates that families are engaged with children's inquiries at home in many ways such as providing resources, conversing, and investigating…

Compares sample of male adolescents (n=36) in relation to their personal development, family characteristics, and types of offense they committed, including those (n=16) with a history of sexual abuse who had offended against children. The most important difference between the two groups was the more frequent absence of the parents of adolescents…

Examined barriers to participation of Southeast Asian families in their children's education. Data from community focus groups, writings from a career ladder project, and a summer academy indicated that Southeast Asians had insufficient knowledge of the American educational system. There were low expectations for Southeast Asians and insufficient…