Search

The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires early intervention programs to serve children in natural environments. Because of geography and resources, it is often impossible for service providers to visit rural families at home as frequently as families were seen via a center-based model. At first glance, reducing visits to rural families may appear to be a serious disadvantage. However, the most efficient route to more intervention is through intervention embedded in typical daily routines and delivered by natural caregivers. In a consultation delivery model, the professional uses the intervention time to teach caregivers strategies that allow them to maximize natural learning opportunities arising in their daily activities, giving the child continuous opportunities for intervention. Transdisciplinary intervention is a flexible, holistic approach in which team members teach and learn from one another to provide integrated intervention suggestions for caregivers. Professionals can determine the frequency and team configuration for home visits based upon how often strategies will likely need modification, how much support the caregivers want or need, and what type of support is needed. One example of a team configuration might include monthly visits by therapists and weekly visits by a special educator. Although the special educator would not be qualified to prescribe therapy, the special educator can assess the child's progress and the family's comfort with strategies to determine if the therapist needs to visit more often. (TD)

Research suggests that quality home literacy activities make a difference in children's reading development. The federally funded Title I program of the Charlotte County, Florida school system promoted the role of parents as reading tutors in a way that supported the district's literacy development goals and philosophy. Parent involvement plans were initiated to enable elementary school parents to incorporate a research-based knowledge of emergent literacy and reading strategies in parent-child home interactions. The result was the Book Checkout Program (BCP), centering on a weekly book checkout activity at Title I elementary school family resource centers which are stocked with a large variety of leveled and chapter books, including books in Spanish for Hispanic families. Staff members guide parents in reading with their children, reinforcing their children's use of reading strategies. For the eight schools (preschool through fifth grade) and one early education center using the BCP, participation increased from 184 students in 1996 to 1,876 in 2002. A program evaluation examined the difference in these outcomes between families with frequent participation (FP) in BCP and families with minimal participation (MP): frequency of parent-child home reading activities, child's attitude toward reading, and child's reading achievement level. Evaluation sample included 792 students in grades 1-5. Data were collected to examine differences between FP and MP in three outcome areas: parent behaviors with children at home, children's attitude toward reading, and children's reading achievement. Findings reveal that children from FP families tended to be more positive about reading in school and more confident when called on to read in class; these children tended to have higher levels of reading achievement than their peers from MP families. (Contains 17 references and 5 tables.) (NKA)

School reform in New Zealand in the 1990s greatly affected funding strategies and school social dynamics. This paper investigates the effects of per-pupil funding and the track system on the sensibilities of students in one New Zealand secondary school. Per-pupil funding and the track system are used in an effort to attract parents (consumers) and raise the school's value in the education market. The paper uses data from ethnographic research, focusing on 560 Year 10 students. Data were compiled from observations of students and interviews with students, parents, administrators, and teachers. Conclusions, meant to open up further discussion of school reform, include the following: (1) "Free-marketization" of education encourages a division between top-track and lower-track students, which creates for students different feelings of belonging to the school; (2) poorer students are sacrifices in the school's value-creation efforts, victims that the school sees as necessary for its survival; and (3) the school became "commodified" by the reforms but by different degrees, depending on the socioeconomic positions of parents. Included is a discussion of recent sociopolitical forces in New Zealand and how they influenced school reform. (Contains 27 references.) (WFA)

Throughout the country, a wide range of educational options exist, from neighborhood public schools to cyber-schools. This study focuses on school choice in improving the educational experience in one city, Philadelphia. The study employed interviews with policymakers, teachers, and others; a focus group of middle-school students; a collection of research and policy documents; and firsthand observations of a high-school choice fair and two conferences. The findings show that choice means different things to different people and that numerous and diverse policies exist. Nevertheless, the structure of many policies limits the choices of certain families. Recommendations include the following: increased efforts to increase awareness about choices; formation of an organization to further the sharing of information among educators; adequate funding for charter schools, but not at the expense of the school district; more clarity and consistency in accountability policies; ensuring that traditional and charter-school leaders and staff have the capacity to sustain their programs. From the research evidence, it remains unclear that school-choice programs are achieving their goals. Future research should include evaluations that assess the effects of school-choice programs on equity, educational outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. (Contains 52 references and a list of online resources.) (WFA)

This study investigated the ways in which youth organizations support families, highlighting the role of youth organizations in strengthening youth and their families; what youth organizations need to know and do to enhance their prospects for successfully supporting/strengthening youth and their families; and the type of external supports and opportunities that families need, and which youth organizations can provide, to support their growth and development. Data were collected via focus groups with youth organization practitioners and with parents of youth who were and were not participating in youth programs. In-depth assessments of youth workers and Youth Development Institute staff of eight youth organizations were also reviewed. Results indicated that youth development organizations can and often do support family strengthening by promoting emotional connectedness, goal sharing, promoting high expectations, mediating conflict between youth and families, providing role models, bridging worlds, and promoting parental efficacy. Recommendations include raising public awareness of the importance of the relationship between youth development and family strengthening; supporting identification, documentation, and dissemination of best practices integrating youth development and family development; and supporting training and strengthening frontline practice that integrates youth and family development. (Contains 12 references.) (SM)

The increase in divorce rates following the American adoption of no-fault divorce is correlated with radical changes in the lives of many parents and children. However, the dissolution of a marriage does not mean the end of a family. Family ties are forever, and family therapists can assist by easing the pain of divorce and empowering parents to be proactive and to ensure that their children experience a healthy adaptation to divorce. The authors suggest some research-based strategies and therapeutic techniques to help parents develop self-care and child-care skills. (Contains 21 references.) (Author/GCP)

This report describes the Alliance for Achievement project, a guide for constructing a school community that takes into account influences of the home on school performance. The project began in 1989 when 5 Illinois schools developed a plan to focus parental involvement on "the curriculum of the home" and integrate these efforts into a conception of the school as a community that includes teachers, staff, students, and families of students. This report provides a history and the theory base of the project, along with a literature review on community. The report also recaps the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) project of 1996-98. In that project, Alliance for Achievement was both a service provided to schools and a vehicle for ongoing research on social capital, curriculum of the home, school community, and factors that affect school learning. Data for the LSS project were collected through the School Community survey administered to 7,600 parents and 1,860 teachers in 53 schools. While this report includes several snapshots from the survey, it provides few concrete findings or conclusions. It does, however, include lessons learned and suggestions for further consideration and implementation of the Alliance for Achievement model. (Contains 10 tables and 32 references.) (WFA)

This paper reports on Children Achieving, a systemic reform program implemented in 1995 to improve the Philadelphia public schools. Children Achieving was the first attempt by an urban district to test systemic reform in practice. The first part of the report discusses the beliefs and values of the program's action-design component, which emphasized standards-based instruction and increased parent involvement in the schools. The action design called for a greater role of parents in holding school, district, city, and state officials accountable for the quality of public education. The second part of the report presents two case studies that involved parents from low-income, racial-minority, ethic-minority, or linguistic-minority neighborhoods who were actively engaged in local school change. The first case involves the Alliance Organizing project, a parent organizing initiative. The second case involves Teachers and Parents as Students, an initiative of the Philadelphia Writing project based at the University of Pennsylvania. The concluding section of the report discusses the implications of the case studies for future reform efforts. It asserts that intermediary groups can play powerful roles in supporting parent involvement and that standards-based reform is enhanced through parent participation. But these efforts must be sustainable over the long term. (WFA)

The challenge facing school finance is how to harness the school-finance system to the fundamental purpose of education: to improve learning for all students. The challenge is posed by political demands for better school performance and accountability, and by court rulings that tie school funding to standards of adequacy. This paper examines four new significant challenges, or changes, that will affect future finance scenarios. The first change is demographics. The number of school-aged children is expected to continue to increase. And as the student population grows, it is expected to become increasingly diverse, placing more pressure on education budgets. The second change is in labor. Schools must have personnel policies that will enable them to compete in the marketplace for skilled teachers. The third change is in technology. Funding will have to be available for technology in the classroom. The fourth change is in the move toward nontraditional education, notably charter schools, contracting, and vouchers. The growing number of educational providers and the increasing pressure for parent choice shifts the attention from how to fund districts to how to fund schools. While this paper offers no concrete solutions, it poses a number of questions for policymakers. (Contains 21 references.) (WFA)

This report examines how to hold schools accountable for educational quality. Collecting and disseminating school performance data to parents and the public is one accountability measure that school districts can implement. Most states currently produce school report cards or school profiles, which offer important information on their schools. However, 13 states do not produce these report cards, and many that do fail to include important data, much of which is already collected, that could make the profiles more useful for parents and administrators. The Center for Community Change identified various specific indicators that could be required on individual school report cards in all states (e.g., assessment scores, average class size by grade, four-year graduation rates, and indicators of overcrowding). The Center surveyed the 50 states to investigate the variety of school report cards that currently exist, determine how many states report the minimal list of data, and examine formats through which parents receive information. The Center recommends that administrators, policymakers, parents, and children receive much more than simply the assessment scores of students at the school. Three appendixes present sources and links to examples, Web site addresses for state report cards, and a matrix on current state report cards. (SM)

This document presents findings from interviews conducted to obtain information on changes that have occurred in state Special Education Advisory Panels (SEAPs) since the passage of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The interviews investigated general organizational changes, SEAP involvement in the State Improvement Grant (SIG) process, and SEAP involvement in the Continuous Improvement Monitoring Process. Information was obtained through a telephone interview process involving SEAPs in Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Interviewees reported minimal changes to SEAP size and more noticeable changes in membership composition following the 1997 amendments to IDEA. Changes in composition were commonly reported to be the result of the "special rule of majority," which states that a majority must be individuals with disabilities or parents of children with disabilities. SEAP roles and responsibilities were overwhelmingly perceived to have increased. The SIG and Continuous Improvement Monitoring Processes were seen to have contributed significantly to the expanded involvement of SEAPs in state activities. Interviewees expressed the belief that SEAP members have become empowered as never before to raise and address issues of major concern to individuals with disabilities. The interview protocol is included in the report. (CR)

This workshop seeks to enable parents to analyze their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills so they can serve as models for their children. It also seeks to support the ongoing, natural process of their children's emerging literacy through thoughtful reading, writing, speaking, and listening home activities. Some key concepts--language learning and usage, reading at home, and writing at home--are defined before the workshop begins, and materials, procedures, and evaluation are discussed. The workshop is organized in two broad parts: Part I consists of (1) Overview; (2) Session I and II Outcomes Transparency; (3) Session I and II Key Concepts; (4) Session I Key Concepts Transparency; (5) Session II Key Concepts Transparency; (6) How and Why Children Use Language Skills--Parent Handout; (7) How and Why Children Use Language Skills--Facilitator Directions; (8) Stages of Emerging Literacy; (9) Reading with Young Children Quiz--Facilitator Directions; (10) Reading with Young Children Quiz--Parent Handout; (11) Sharing a Children's Book--Facilitator Directions; (12) PEER--Explanation and Model, Open-Ended Questions for Reading Aloud; (13) Supporting Independent Writing; and (14) Workshop Evaluation. Part II consists of Additional Parent Resources--Reading with Young Children: It's Never Too Early; Developing Awareness of Printed Language; Practicing Reflective Reading; Developing Phonological Awareness: Play with Language; Learning the Alphabet and Letter Sounds; Playing with Letters and Words; Rereading Familiar Books; Developing Accuracy and Fluency; Reading Writing Connection: Supporting Independent Writing; Letter Formation and Holding a Pencil; Developmental Stages of Spelling; Writing in Kindergarten; and 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know. (Contains 18 references.) (NKA)

This report describes how the Parent Services Project (PSP) is being implemented in the communities of Bushwick and Washington Heights/Inwood in New York City, focusing on the progress made and the challenges encountered in the first 18 months of the program's implementation. Information for the report was obtained through on-site observations as well as informal conversations, interviews, and focus groups conducted with parents and child care staff involved in the two sites. The following key themes generated by the data are highlighted: (1) staff and parents embraced the PSP philosophy of family engagement and community empowerment; (2) PSP activities were determined by the parents themselves, including deciding how program funds were to be spent; (3) PSP benefited parents by increasing social support, by providing opportunities to improve their parenting skills, by increasing access to community services, and by addressing language barriers that affect participation in centers and community life; (4) PSP staff sought to engage fathers and desired more male involvement in the program; (5) staff were committed to building coalitions while recognizing that doing so was a tremendous challenge and a slow process; (6) parents wanted more computer training and job preparation services from the program; and (7) barriers to PSP implementation included coordination of activities across sites, the timeliness of resource dissemination, and organizational turf issues. The report also details program evaluation for which staff indicated they would like information, including changes in parenting styles, impact on children, changes in the community, how well the coalitions work, and impact on fathers. The report concludes with a discussion of the logistical issues in conducting the evaluation. The interview and focus group questions are appended. (KB)

The Internet is a revolution unfolding before our eyes. There is concern that this revolution will increase class and racial differences and that a new digital divide between information haves and information have-nots will exacerbate existing levels of inequality in American society. This paper examines how the Internet has been tapped to deliver information about the schools in ways that either explicitly or implicitly try to cross the digital divide. First, the paper looks at several examples of websites that are trying to cross the digital divide by presenting local information about the schools. Second, the paper looks at the problems with harnessing the Internet as a tool for doing research about the schools. Third, the paper illustrates some of these problems by analyzing patterns of usage of one of these websites to see if actual usage shows patterns of inequality or expanded usage. The final section of the paper looks at the possibility of harnessing the Internet in a way that goes beyond the consumer-choice model embodied in most current school-based sites to a much more expansive citizen-based model of improving schools and, even more ambitiously, building stronger communities. (Contains approximately 87 references. (Author)

This study examined the possible benefits to Utah of a Universal Tuition Tax Credit (UTTC), a credit that would make it possible for parents, both low-income and moderate-income, to choose a nonpublic school for their child if they want to. The UTTC would have a positive effect on the per-student revenues available for public school systems as more parents would rely on nonpublic schools. It is projected that over 5 years, the UTTC would save $36 million in local property tax expenditures. The study began by considering why parental choice is an essential ingredient in school change and improvement, suggesting that only where consumer choice and competition exist can there be organizational strategies that allow for successful change and improvement. The study analyzed four potential options for educational improvement and concluded that a tuition tax credit is the best option for significant educational improvement. It is the most likely strategy to provide multiple options and freedom of choice and to most likely to accelerate improvement through incentives. The study also examines constitutional issues based on the U.S. Constitution and Utah's state constitution. The study outlines the UTTC plan for Utah, which would gradually phase in a tax credit for any Utah private school student that could be claimed by any taxpayer, individual or corporate, including a students relatives, friends, or businesses that pay children's tuition. The proposed credit is a per-child credit that increases over years to a maximum of 50% of the average per-student cost of public schooling. An final analysis considers the impact on public school enrollment in Utah and suggests that the credit will benefit the state in periods of slow or rapid economic growth. Four appendixes provide additional information about the UTTC and organizations that support it. (SLD)

School choice, as one avenue toward educational reform, must be placed in context, according to this brief policy analysis. Prepared mainly for policymakers in California and stressing implications for public education in California, the report briefly discusses five samples of school choice: (1) magnet schools; (2) charter schools; (3) open enrollment; (4) voucher experiments; and (5) tax credits for private-school enrollment. The report describes how these choice mechanisms are intended to work and what is known about their actual effects on students, parents, and local educators. One key finding is that the claims made by advocates of choice programs far exceed the hard evidence required to judge actual results. The report also touches on accountability as a reform strategy and urges policymakers and local interest groups to consider accountability reforms alongside the desire to spawn more diverse forms of schooling. (WFA)

This report examines family involvement in elementary and secondary education, focusing on special concerns for schools in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. The report identifies barriers to family involvement found among culturally diverse populations and suggests positive directions aimed at overcoming those barriers. Following an introduction, the report discusses the numerous components of family involvement and notes that family, school, and community are three major interrelated spheres of influences on a child's life that can work toward academic success or impede progress. Barriers among culturally diverse populations are described, including prior history of discrimination, generational differences in acculturation, language differences and misconceptions about school, teachers' beliefs and attitudes, and issues of community identity. Barriers posing unique challenges for educators in the Pacific Islands include the lack of a clear definition of family involvement, issues related to the schooling process, cultural barriers, religious priorities, and a belief in the separation of school and home. The report identifies positive directions in family involvement efforts nationwide, including the priority placed on family involvement in the U.S. National Education Goals and the empowerment model to provide an organizational structure for parent involvement programs. Positive directions in the Pacific are presented, including the support for site-based management and the development of a network of parent-community networking centers. The report concludes with recommendations related to emphasizing the value of family involvement in education, identifying relevant barriers to family involvement, seeking culturally appropriate solutions, and using professional development opportunities to enhance family involvement. (Contains 41 references.) (KB)

This report presents a proposal to expand parental choice in Michigan education by amending the Michigan Constitution and establishing a Universal Tuition Tax Credit (UTTC). Section 1 reviews why parental choice is the most important systemic education reform and evaluates various ways to expand it. Section 2 examines Michigan's constitutional prohibition on including nonpublic schools in an open system of parental choice. Section 3 reviews several methods of expanding parental choice and discusses how the UTTC plan capitalizes on strengths and minimizes weaknesses of traditional tuition tax credits and tuition vouchers. Section 4 and Appendix 1 present a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the UTTC on student enrollment and state finances over a 10-year period. In addition to improving public education, the UTTC will save the state $3.4 billion in education expenses in the first 10 years of implementation and over $500 million each year thereafter, savings that can be used to support additional educational programs or address other budget priorities. The report includes detailed guidelines and analysis, the complete text of a proposed UTTC constitutional amendment, key elements of the implementing legislation including sample forms and procedures, and answers to commonly asked questions regarding the UTTC. (RT)

This final report of a five-year project describes the activities of Parents, Let's Unite for Kids (PLUK), a Montana program designed to provide support, training, and information to parents of infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities. A priority of the project is to serve members of groups that have been traditionally underserved, especially families living in rural locations and Indian families living both on and off reservations. Goals of the project included: (1) to assist parents in understanding the nature and needs of the disabling conditions of their children; (2) to demonstrate ways parents can support their child's educational program; (3) to enable parents to communicate more effectively with special educators, administrators, related service personnel, and other relevant professionals; (4) to empower parents as decision-makers in the special education process, including development of their child's Individualized Education Program; (5) to provide parents with information about the options, programs, services, and resources available at the national, state, and local levels to assist infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families; and (6) to increase parents' understanding of the provisions for education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Activities the project conducted to achieve these goals are outlined. (CR)

This paper examines the concept of "empowerment" and analyzes contrasting perspectives on the empowerment of parents that have informed developments at national and local levels in the United Kingdom and also in the United States and other countries. Empirical data illustrate the limited impact these approaches have on a group of working-class parents in England. The first approach is exemplified by social democratic initiatives that define empowerment as a strengthening of the role of parent-as-citizen through mechanisms designed to encourage the closer involvement of parents in the planning and delivery of local education services. The second definition of empowerment is contained within the British Conservative Party's emphasis on promoting the role of the parent as consumer, especially through policies claiming to enhance parental choice of school. A third approach, supported by the "new centrists" emphasizes the responsibility of the individual to empower himself or herself by taking advantage of opportunities to participate. The experiences of a racially mixed working class group of parents and their perceptions of the forms of action open to them during a teacher shortage illustrate how little sense of power these parents had. Data collected through interviews with 50 parents, some of whom were Bangladeshi, showed how far from empowered these parents felt as the teacher shortage disrupted classes and their children's educations. The beliefs and attitudes of many parents, especially low-income and minority group members, remain untouched by the rhetoric of parent empowerment. (Contains 65 references.) (SLD)

This final report discusses the outcomes of the Family Connections Research and Demonstration Project, a project funded by the Oregon Center for Mental Health Services to study the effectiveness of an intervention designed to address the major problems related to services initiation and continuance within the children's mental health system. The intervention was delivered by Family Associates, parents without mental health training who acted as a system guide to low-income families whose children had been referred to mental health services through the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program. The family associate provided emotional support, information about mental health services and community resources, and direct assistance such as help with transportation and child care. A comparison of 96 families from intervention counties and 143 families from comparison counties indicated that families in the intervention group were significantly more likely to initiate children's mental health services than were those in the comparison group, that they reported higher levels of empowerment, and greater positive change in family well-being during the time they worked with the Family Associate. Appendices include relevant forms, interviews, and questionnaires. (Contains 105 references.) (CR)

This report from a 1995 Child Care Action Campaign national audioconference examines approaches to empowering parents through developing support, leadership, advocacy, and activism to better enable low-income parents to become effective change agents. The report describes the experiences of three parent programs, which found that parents typically help their children first, recognize the interests they share with other parents, and then take an increasingly active role in programs, institutions, and public policies that directly influence their lives. The first program described, the Parent Services Project (California), offers low-income parents the opportunity to take responsibility for organizing social and educational activities and managing resources to carry them out. This program confirms to the child care center staff that parents are assets to their children's development. The second program, Parent Leadership Institute (Connecticut), trains parents to work as community activists and child advocates in school systems and local government. Parents who participated in this 9-month training program have raised funds and organized courses for parents in their children's schools, and have effectively dealt with city government officials to rectify dangerous situations in the school. The third program, Parents United for Child Care (Massachusetts), has organized 1,500 parents to identify, lobby for, and pursue specific improvements in child care funding and programs to meet their family needs. This group has expanded school-age child care, developed and expanded care and education for preschool children, and increased child care funding for welfare recipients and working poor participants in education and training. (KB)

A study conducted in the English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) class of 11 Southeast Asian refugee parents of several nationalities and language groups investigated changes in the parents' relationships with their children through four months of the acculturation process, focusing on the strategies the parents used to guide and assist their children in school. Data were gathered through observation of discussion groups and classes. Differences in the cultures, particularly relating to perceptions of education and the family, were taken into consideration. It was found that the parents felt their children did not listen to parents and did not take school seriously; this was noted particularly in teenagers. They also felt the children were using their greater knowledge of American culture to evade academic activities. Parents observed changes in their children's behavior since immigration, including loss of respect for parents and discipline difficulties. Role reversal was sometimes observed. Parents evidenced both empathy and frustration in dealing with their children's education and used a number of strategies to encourage attention to academic achievement. The ESL class provided a forum for discussing these issues and enhance communication capacity. Contains 24 references. (MSE)