Parents and guardians can be a powerful resource for teachers, but it takes skill and confidence to build partnerships, or parentships, and proactively engage in a positive way. Kyle Palmer draws from his experience as both a principal of a Model PLC at Work® school and a parent to offer practical strategies for including parents or guardians as…

This book is a first person narrative from a parent/community advocate. Examining my personal experiences as a parent of color in a Higher Learning Institute, I highlight some of the frustrations experienced by urban working class parents of color as they attempt to engage teachers in their community's schools. I underscore the importance of one…

This guide presents information and clinical tools to implement the Anger Coping Program, an empirically supported intervention for students in grades 3-6. Practitioners are taken step by step through setting up treatment groups, teaching vital skills for reducing aggression and disruptive behavior, and building strong partnerships with teachers…

Written by teachers who are also parents, this guide provides proven and practical advice to help parents of children from kindergarten through middle school be active supporters of their children's educational experiences. Issues covered include transition to school, latchkey issues, and talking with teachers. The tips are categorized as follows:…

This is a guide for teachers to help them communicate more effectively with parents. The bulk of the guide contains a year's worth of letters that can be signed and sent out or changed to fit local circumstances. The first section, "Designing Your Own Powerful Parent Letters," offers "10 Steps to Effective Written Communication," outlines the…

This book looks at parent-professional-child relations very differently than other books in this area. Author Dana McDermott focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners who should be growing and learning along with the children in their care. Accessibly written, the book synthesizes the latest theories and research on parent-and adult-child…

Noting that the single best way to improve elementary education is to strengthen parents' role in it, this book describes aspects of parent-school interaction that could be used to improve the quality of children's education and academic success. The first chapter defines the ineffective ways in which most parents respond to public education and…

The book is intended to help parents of handicapped children secure good special education services for their children. Nine chapters focus on aspects of parent advocacy and include practical information and case studies. Chapter 1 emphasizes the importance of parental knowledge about the educational planning process and the professionals…

Intended for parents, this booklet offers information about how reading instruction is changing and is now only one part of an integrated language arts curriculum. The booklet urges parents and educators to work together to help meet students needs. Section titles include: Important Facts About Integrated Language Arts; What to Expect in Your…

Identifying primary themes in literacy development and suggesting parallel practices to reinforce them, this book details how teachers and the families of students created a connection between home and school, developing respected partnerships in the teaching/learning process. The book features the voices of teachers, children, and parents;…

Written from both a personal and a professional perspective, this book discusses how parents can help their children learn by learning along with them. Part One, "The Learning-Teaching Parent," encourages parents to participate in the learning process with their child. Chapters in this section are: (1) "The Learning Child"; (2) "The Roots of…

In order to meet the goals of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing is preeminent as the sole indicator determining whether states all across America demonstrate adequate yearly progress regarding the improvement of student achievement in literacy education. This book will help teachers and parents raise children's scores on standardized…

This volume is a collection of 27 essays, grouped into 4 parts, on the theme of parental involvement in education. The first section, "Parental Choice and School Involvement," contains a history of parental choice and school involvement and discussions of current efforts to increase parent participation and the school choice debate. In…

This book aims to help teachers who are committed to whole language principles explain the philosophy to their students' parents. It addresses the concerns of parents who most likely grew up in a traditional, teacher-centered educational system, and who therefore might be unfamiliar with a whole language approach to language arts. Drawing on work…

This book is intended to transcend the gap between parents and teachers so that they may work together to benefit the youngsters they share. The intent, focus, and direction of the book are all highly connected and recursive. The intent of the book is to diminish the differences between the roles of parent and teacher so that they may become…