The book presents 13 papers that explore the intriguing and sometimes baffling phenomenon of children's capacity to deal with adversity. It is divided into three sections. The book's opening section provides an overview of stress research and coping strategies. Section 2 focuses on the determinants of competence and investigates the complex…

General education students show a higher rate of attendance than do special education students. To shed light on this discrepancy, the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (OREA) of the New York City Board of Education conducted a three-part study focusing on students in both groups who are truants or in danger of truancy. Part 1 of the…

This practicum was designed to use training to increase economically disadvantaged parents' participation in their children's academic learning. Objectives were that targeted, uninvolved parents would: (1) increase communication with their children's school; (2) increase their attendance at school functions involving parents; (3) increase their…

This report evaluates the Saginaw Drug and Alcohol Abuse Education Training Program conducted in 1990-1991, which provided in-depth training for 94 professionals including 63 teachers and 7 counselors through a workshop lasting 5 days and containing 6 hours of instruction per day. The workshops addressed the identification of both drug abuse…

An elementary school principal implemented a practicum to improve school-home communication at a school where administrators believed that a history of poor communication between parents and teachers negatively influenced the school's academic and parent involvement programs. Specific practicum goals were to improve: (1) school-home communication…

A review of the research literature on parents as teachers yields several conclusions concerning the context and function of the family in the child's learning and development: (1) the parent-as-educator functions in the context of a complex family eco-system which interfaces efficiently or inefficiently with other systems, such as the school; (2)…

Project Search for Preventive Approaches hypothesized that the development of cognitive competence in adults and in youngsters, using non-curriculum-oriented materials, and deriving pleasure from an intellectual experience, could be posited as a necessary prerequisite for preventing or curbing maladaptive behavior in the ghetto child, and…

This brief paper suggests ways of involving students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficits in their own learning, with a systematic program intended to build self-understanding and a healthy internal locus of control. The program is based on the concept of multiple intelligences and the many different ways in which students and…

This study involves the collaboration of researchers with 24 teachers in a 3-year intervention study aimed at investigating and improving vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of fourth and fifth grade students for whom English is a second language. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected on various aspects of vocabulary…

Research is reviewed on cognitive interventions which affect children's self-control. Five types of effective manipulations are discussed: self-verbalization; external verbalization; affect manipulation; cognitive transformation; and manipulation of attention. Self-control behaviors include modification of impulsive behaviors; delay of…

Twenty-one impulsive fifth and sixth graders with low academic achievement were assigned to (1) self-instruction (SI) training; (2) problem solving (PS) training; or (3) a control condition. SI and PS training produced improvement in impulsivity and achievement, but only the impulsivity decrease was maintained at six months. (SLD)

Schools within the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health intervention were randomized into control, school-based, and school-based plus family intervention conditions. Measures of third graders' psychosocial determinants of risk behavior indicated significant improvements in all psychosocial determinants following the interventions,…

This article describes the Research Lead Teacher (RLT) model and its implementation over 3 years to train classroom teachers in research-based instructional and behavior management strategies. The RLT program included teacher study groups and a structured intervention involving the RLT in the requesting teacher's classroom. External evaluation…

The present study is a longitudinal examination of family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Preschool and kindergarten teachers and family workers of 75 children from families with low SES logged the frequency and characteristics of family-school communication, resulting in over 22,000 contacts. Data were collected during a…

This study investigated the effects of a strategic self-monitoring intervention (i.e., ACT-REACT) on the academic engagement, nontargeted problem behavior, productivity, and accuracy of students with and without disabilities. Seven boys and two girls of elementary age who received their educational services in two different inclusive classrooms…