Virtue, according to Aristotle, is doing the right things at the right time with the right people for the right end and in the right way. This concept is central to the work of the Early Learning Initiative, an Irish community-based educational initiative. This paper describes how a community of parents, early childhood care and education…

Parents of children waiting for a diagnostic assessment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience distress and anxiety while they wait. The present small-scale study took place in a multi-disciplinary therapeutic service in Ireland for children with ASD and was run between April and September 2011. The first author, an educational psychologist…

How often have we said: "The parents are not involved--they are just not interested." My two-year action research study evaluated a variety of methods which led to more immigrant parent participation in family workshops. The study took place in a Chicago public school, in a first grade bilingual classroom. All of the families are Spanish…

The purpose of this action research project was to increase homework completion through the use of motivating strategies. There were approximately 75 students, 100 parents, and three teacher researchers involved in this study. The three intervention strategies used were 15 minutes of class time, extrinsic rewards, and assignment notebook checks.…

The State of the Science conference was held in May, 2007 as part of the ongoing series of national conferences, "Building on Family Strengths," conducted by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health at Portland State University. The theme of this State-of-the Science conference was "Effective…

This action research project addressed the problem of declining parent involvement at a Midwestern, suburban elementary school. In order to document parent involvement issues at the site, parent, educator, and student surveys were administered. Surveys were analyzed for effectiveness of home-school communication, perceived barriers to and benefits…

This action research project evaluated the impact of strategies to increase parental involvement and improve student interest in academics and school-related activities. Participating were students in an eighth grade social studies class and third through seventh grade learning disabilities classes in a rural school setting. The need for increased…

Problems in students completing homework may be related to lack of parental involvement and support, student attitudes and priorities, and the assigning of inappropriate and irrelevant homework. This action research project implemented and examined the effectiveness of increased communication with parents regarding homework, cooperative learning…

This series of five short papers describes an interdisciplinary, community action research project in Newfoundland that sought to enhance and extend the traditional and technological literacy of adults. The papers were part of an action research project conducted by the directors and tutors which made computers available in community resource…