Based on the idea that parents are their children's first and most important teachers, this book gives practical suggestions for how parents can best nurture the qualities of initiative, thoughtfulness, curiosity, resourcefulness, perseverance, and imagination that are fundamental to all that children will do and become in their lives. Drawing…

This qualitative study examined personal (socio-emotional, linguistic, and cognitive aspects) and cultural characteristics of 12 high ability, Hispanic, bilingual students in an urban elementary school, their educational experiences, and their home, school, and community environments. Case study research methods, including ethnographic interviews,…

This fact sheet about students who are deaf-blind provides information on orientation and mobility (O&M) training. It begins by describing orientation and mobility skills, and emphasizes the need for a team approach in the development and implementation of O&M instruction. Instructional strategies are described, including initial assessment of O&M…

With over half the nation's infants and toddlers in regular, non-parental child care, the quality of that care is a priority concern for policymakers. Many studies show that high-quality child care supports the positive social, emotional, and cognitive development of young children. The research summarized in this policy brief identifies factors…

Examined home literacy environments of four children from low-income Caucasian, African American, or biracial families. Found that all the parents provided support for literacy but with different constructions; children's descriptions of how they were learning to read at home reflected their home literacy experiences; and all four environments…

Antisocial behavior can be reduced if services focus on changing the known determinants of behavior problems in the natural environments in which children and families live. The development of multisystemic treatment (MST) gives mental health professionals a powerful new tool for confronting antisocial behavior in children and adolescents,…

The recent flood of new information on structuring human experience along gender lines and on the female component of human experience has profound implications for education. The new scholarship shows that much of what people once assumed to be innate gender difference is in fact produced by adults' different behavior toward boys and girls, of…

A study of the correlates of cognitive achievement in Pennsylvania's Educational Quality Assessment Program was conducted by examining both individual (student level) and ecological (building level) correlations. Analyses were completed for grade levels 5, 8 and 11 for the 1985 state assessment. Twenty-four student derived condition variables or…

This report summarizes results of ethnographic research and a survey on how home climate, school climate, and interaction between the two might affect learning and school behavior among students of different racial/ethnic groups, sex, and socioeconomic background; and provides guidelines for measuring and improving equity in multicultural schools.…

The 11 items in this annotated bibliography are entries in the ERIC system concerning studies of school effectiveness and the debate surrounding how much influence schools have over student learning. Several articles included reexamine the 1966 Coleman report, and one compares a more recent Coleman report with the earlier report. A number of…

Secondary school teachers in the Houston Independent School District were asked for their perceptions of variables that contributed to difficulty of teaching. A 60-item questionnaire included variables from school environment categories: student characteristics, managerial efficiency, instructional program, material resources, teacher personal…

This work by a social psychologist is concerned with the consequences of the values, attitudes, and behavior of teachers and more advantaged peers for the educational experience of disadvantaged youngsters in heterogeneous schools. The academic, social, and emotional factors in these schools are interdependent and equally important for the…

A 2-year longitudinal study of 54 students in 4 urban high schools in California is used to develop a model of the interrelationships among family, peer, and school worlds as they combine to affect students' learning. Different categories of congruence between students' worlds illustrate the difficulties facing minority students. (SLD)

This paper discusses the overuse of medications to deal with attention deficit disorder (ADD) in the classroom, offering suggestions related to teaching strategies, classroom environment, school environment, and home environment to help keep students' attention without resorting to medication. A chart shows the difference between ADD and other…

A study examining school violence surveyed 819 students in grades 8, 10, and 11 in a rural secondary school in 1997 and 1999. Student feelings toward school safety were not significantly different in the 2 years. However, there was a significant decline in feeling safe at home, which may be a catalyst for future school problems. (Contains 24…