Describes two action research ethnographic studies that show different sides of a community-centered model of literacy among young children. One examined the storytelling and story reading practices low-income African American parents used with their young children. The other involved encouraging community participation by having parents share…

Describes how two rural Colorado communities, threatened by the loss of their elementary schools, established a charter school based in two existing facilities. Discusses the benefits of local autonomy, the value of networking with other rural charter schools, the role of the community in school innovations, and emphases on staff development and…

Describes using the World Wide Web in a multilingual classroom to address different learning styles and to teach English, social studies, math, science, art, foreign countries, writing, and media literacy. Discusses parent involvement and use of technology in interdisciplinary lessons. Highlights Web sites for national standards, five reasons to…

Identifies benefits of family involvement in the early childhood classroom for the child, parents, and teacher. Describes barriers to parent involvement: parent availability, parent and teacher awkwardness, schedule conflicts, and school resistance to full parent inclusion. Provides six principles for involving parents in their children's…

Although facilitating community participation in disadvantaged schools can be difficult, this article argues that, given the structuring of schooling in contemporary western democracies, it is even more difficult than we might imagine. Drawing on Bourdieu, we attempt to elucidate the complex relations between schooling and socio-cultural contexts…

We present the cases of two families from the same middle-class community and conclude that home and school are more connected for some students and families than for others, even in the middle class where seamlessness is assumed. Home and school are more closely aligned for middle-class European-American students who read at home, engage in…

New Jersey, like many other states, is experiencing a significant influx of new immigrants--from countries such as India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Poland, Nigeria, Liberia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. In addition, New Jersey remains one of the most segregated states in the country, educating the majority of its African-American families…

Students learning a new language need a great deal of language support. Those who teach students learning English as their second language know that any language support is crucial for students' language acquisition. Therefore, English Language (EL) students need a variety of language experiences. They need opportunities to hear, write, speak, and…

Longitudinal data from kindergarten to 5th grade on both family involvement in school and children's literacy performance were examined for an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N = 281). Within families, increased school involvement predicted improved child literacy. In addition, although there was an achievement gap in average literacy…

Parents make powerful contributions to their children's early literacy learning in school. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the efficacy of the Words-to- Go parent involvement program as part of a larger effort to reach out to parents in early literacy. Quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from focus…

Parent/professional partnership is a key theme in government policy and service delivery for parents of disabled children, yet there is little evidence of such partnerships in research. Drawing on the literature concerning parents' experiences of caring for and raising a child with additional needs; parental involvement and partnerships and the…

We compared family risk and protective factors among potential high school dropouts with and without suicide-risk behaviors (SRB) and examined the extent to which these factors predict categories of SRB. Subjects were randomly selected from among potential dropouts in 14 high schools. Based upon suicide-risk status, 1,083 potential high school…

This paper reviews the school-family partnership in Hong Kong in the past decade. The typology of Epstein's six types of partnership is adopted as the analytical framework. The results show that there has been an increase in shared experience in school education among various stakeholders. Schools have become more convinced that they have a role…

How to involve families in the formal education of their children is a question researchers and educators have been trying to answer since the first bricks were laid for the nation's public education system. A solution must be found, for family involvement has been proven to be associated with a myriad of stellar outcomes, including greater…

A growing body of research confirms that parents have a profound impact on their children's educational attainment, particularly in the secondary grades. Yet many Latino parents, particularly those of first-generation college students, lack information and knowledge about what their children need to prepare for college and are less likely to help…