When planning a conference with the school principal, parents should remember that principals do not have the autonomy of those from past eras. To help ensure a successful meeting, parents can plan ahead, outline expectations, and not expect an immediate solution. (DF)

Despite the problems facing Catholic schools today, many parents feel that these schools can be preserved and even strengthened if Church leaders will accept parents as real partners in education, and if parents will accept this challenge. Describes an attempt at this partnership in New York State. (Author/RK)

Although the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) spells out parent involvement requirements for schools in need of improvement, the majority of the Northwest Region school improvement plans reviewed failed to include such provisions. Reported findings include: (1) Despite a wide range of parent involvement practices discussed in legislation…

This document presents a summary of the larger report, "Parent Involvement Activities in School Improvement Plans in the Northwest Region." Although the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) spells out parent involvement requirements for schools in need of improvement, the majority of the Northwest Region school improvement plans…

The importance of home-to-school and school-to-home communication and parental involvement is well documented by researchers and acknowledged by practitioners. A number of earlier studies argue that there is a positive association between two-way communication, parental involvement, and student achievement at all levels of K-12 education. However,…

According to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), school systems must ensure that the individualized education program (IEP) team includes the parent of the child with a disability. Teachers often report the challenges of getting parents to attend IEP meetings often assuming parents' lack of interest with involvement…

Counselors are often confronted with phone calls from worried parents. This column outlines procedures used by two counselors when dealing with such calls. Their observations and interventions are reported separately, but their comments are presented as a dialogue. (Author/PC)

Key ingredients to successful parent meetings include planning with parents and including the children; assessing parents' needs and interests; planning the details of the meeting, such as meeting place, transportation, child care arrangements, and refreshments and activities; and planning the key elements of the meeting, such as presentations and…

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was created to ensure that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education. One hallmark of IDEA is the promotion of collaboration between school districts and parents of children with disabilities. The letter and spirit of IDEA encourages a working relationship…

The third issue of this Character Education and Civic Engagement Technical Assistance Center (CETAC) newsletter focuses on parent involvement in character education. The Partnerships in Character Education Program (PCEP), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is currently providing support to projects that demonstrate parent involvement in…

The experience of the University of Southern Mississippi in sponsoring "The Parenting the Gifted Children Conference" is described. Discussed are needs assessment, conference format, selection of speakers, budget, public relations, conference evaluation, and physical facilities. Included are a sample evaluation form, a conference…

Study results indicate that parents and students, working together, do try to follow suggested counselor leads, except in areas of vocational planning. (CJ)

Through naturalistic observational procedures, the study examined the dynamics of individualized education program (IEP) conferences involving parents of handicapped elementary grade students. Participants present, the nature and frequency of topics discussed, and the length of conferences were considered. (Author/SBH)

Student achievement and teacher-parent collaboration are strongly correlated to teachers' attitudes toward involvement (Muller & Kerbow, 1993; Swap, 1993). However, there is very little research in China (Gu, 2006) on examining factors that are well documented to show impacts on teachers' attitudes toward parent involvement. This research…

Research in home-school communication has incorporated little, to date, about participation by English as a second language (ESL) parents. This article examines the communication processes between recent Chinese immigrant parents and Canadian teachers at secondary school Parents' Nights. Drawing from observations of three annual Parents' Nights,…