Educators have long recognized that parental and community supports are important underpinnings for children's success in school. With respect to the teaching of writing, however, little research has been conducted to provide evidence of effective practices teachers use to involve parents and communities. As part of a national Canadian study of…

Results of the analyses of over 1000 Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) questionnaires from over 100 public and private schools, in-depth interviews with randomly selected teachers, surveys from nearly 100 DARE teachers, and the data from parents, officers in-training, and student essay winners were uniformly positive. Teacher comments…

A study determined the effect of parental involvement on reading achievement of participating students. Subjects were 22 fifth-grade students in a Chicago public school who received parental involvement and 19 students in the same school who did not receive parental involvement. Subjects' scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were used in the…

Recounts an extended classroom conversation between a fifth grade teacher and her students concerning multiculturalism. Reflects on issues raised in the conversation. Presents samples of students' writing in response to the conversation. Presents excerpts from parents' journals. (RS)

This practicum report describes a reading program that was designed and implemented to help improve reading attitudes among fifth grade children. A target group of 17 fifth-graders were unmotivated and uninterested in reading, and TV occupied a great deal of their out-of-class time. Solution strategies involved encouraging parents, teachers, and…

This practicum was designed to increase the involvement of parents in the music education of fourth and fifth grade students. A delivery system was developed to provide parents with activities, resources, and materials relating to the student's music education. Parents received the materials at no cost. The author developed a brochure and monthly…

The construct of parental support has been defined and measured from a variety of perspectives with little consistency across studies. The present study investigates the relationships among parents' self-reports, children's perceptions, and observers' ratings of parental support in order to assess the validity of each perspective. In addition, the…

This investigation is part of an ongoing, larger study which is looking at joint activity and appropriation of new understandings in an inquiry mathematics classroom setting. Instances of help-seeking which occurred while children were endeavoring to solve non-routine problems at home were analyzed. Considered in this study were (1) the kind of…

A study skills program was developed and implemented to improve spelling grades while incorporating new study skill techniques in a multi-ethnic and multicultural elementary school. A target group of eight fifth-grade students who lacked these skills was established. The program contained five basic strategies for increasing study skills and…

Describes Homewood (Illinois) School District's involvement in Back-to-Back, an exchange program for American and French fifth and sixth graders sponsored by Campus International of Westmont (Illinois). Discusses preparations for the exchange, including student education about France and parent preparation to receive French students, and lists the…

This document describes an experimental program which is designed to help students from grade 5 to grade 7 who are working at or slightly below grade level maintain mathematics skills. Students receive nine home-study packets containing two to four lessons each. Parents must make a commitment to supervise the home-study. The 25 lessons presented…

A 12-week practicum intervention, designed to improve the classroom performance of 17 elementary school students experiencing learning or behavior problems by offering the students nutrition instruction and improving nutritional practices in the students' homes, was implemented and evaluated. Students were requied to agree to: (1) eat a nutritious…

Intended for parents of fifth grade children who are participating in Chapter 1 programs, the learning activities in this booklet give children practice with reading and writing. Among the language skills covered are (1) vocabulary in context; (2) phonetic analysis--consonant sounds and letters; (3) structural analysis--root word endings,…

A practicum sought to improve the quality of involvement of fourth- and fifth-grade parents in a southeastern United States elementary school. Despite indications of active involvement in some school events, parents were not involved in student education in a way that affected academic performance. Three outcomes for the 13-week project were…

A study compared the foreign language proficiency levels and language and cultural attitudes of students involved in two kinds of elementary school Spanish language programs: immersion and Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES). The study also investigated the variation in achievement among children in the same program. Fifth and sixth…