This easy-to-read booklet for parents of handicapped children, contains information on how to organize parent groups to move bureaucracies toward providing better services for handicapped children. Included are suggestions for choosing effective leaders, lobbying for results, using various media, setting up classes in public schools or starting a…

This book explores the themes of citizenship, participation, and collective action in relation to education in Britain. It illustrates ways in which social class, gender, and ethnicity affect parent participation. Chapter one discusses the parent as consumer, partner, and citizen. A focus on parents as citizens in Britain reveals passivity and…

Practical and well-defined solutions are presented to build effective and long-lasting partnerships among parents, educators, and community members for the improvement of schools. A step-by-step model is presented, with an outline to guide anyone attempting to involve parents in their children's schools. Chapter 1, "My Journey to Parent…

According to the authors, parents have lost control not only over how and what their children are taught but over how they are treated as persons in schools they are required to attend. To counter parents' feelings of powerlessness in confronting educational problems, the authors urge parents to organize, get involved in school politics, and stand…

This book presents an ethnography of community efforts in Carpinteria, California, to bridge ethnic differences, empower parents, and improve education for the town's diverse student population. Located on the central California coast south of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria has been home to generations of Mexican immigrants and their children. Over…

This book is composed of six separate but interrelated chapters. The first presents a historical view of education through an exposition of four propositions: (1) success produces problems, (2) historically, people have supported schools because it was in their self-interest, (3) the schools' success and the serving of the public's self-interest…

Recognizing the critical importance of parent involvement in early education, this textbook presents a variety of strategies and techniques for parent involvement in early childhood education programs. Chapters in the first part of the book focus on specific issues and challenges in implementing parent involvement. Chapter 1 examines the need for…