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,…

The effects of a teacher consultation intervention were examined--namely, the collaborative model for promoting competence and success (COMPASS), which was designed to improve objectives of individualized education programs for children with autism. The intervention consists of an initial parent-teacher consultation, followed by four teacher…

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…

The creation of productive home-school relationships has been recognized as important in children's school success; however, in many teacher education programs, parent-teacher conferences may be the primary--and sometimes only--interface prospective teachers have with parents prior to graduation. This study considers how a group of 22 prospective…

This article explores the construction of parent-teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool and focuses on processes that construct and maintain these meetings. The analysis draws upon an ethnographic study in two preschools and the empirical material consists of 11 audiotaped parent-teacher conferences and observations of everyday activities…

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)

Although most diagnostic features of psychoeducational assessment have received considerable attention from researchers in school psychology, the application of the scientific information developed by this assessment has received comparatively little study. This project studied 20 parents of children who had received psychoeducational diagnostic…

Two principles and one verbal technique provide a sound basis for communicating to students and their parents the information obtained from testing: (1) parents have the right to know whatever the school knows about the abilities, performance and problems of their children; (2) the school has the obligation to see that it communicated…

In this paper, the author reviews literature on the subject of releasing test scores and discusses constraints (in terms of test scores released and target groups receiving test scores) which he believes should govern such releases. The author suggests two phases for implementing release of test scores. One phase would involve parent conferences,…

The Pre-School Conference Program has four parts--selection, information gathering, August Conference, and follow-up. In the first phase, faculty, custodians, secretaries, administrators, and guidance counselors are surveyed to determine which students are frequent discipline problems. In the information-gathering phase, the student's previous…

To provide practitioners with a means of organizing their subjective reactions to parents of learning disabled children, an interview-based rating scale was developed and tested with 22 parents attempting to place their children in a 6-week summer remedial program. (IM)

Offers some easy-to-implement suggestions for community relations programs, including parent conferences, senior citizen days, work experience programs, performing groups, luncheons with civic organizations, displays of student works, and bulletin board message centers. Communication continues to be the best source of positive reinforcement. (MLH)

Describes the components of a discipline record system that can improve understanding of where, when, and why problems occur and what methods prove successful for handling them. Also identifies a number of factors that affect the success of discipline conferences between administrators and the parents of misbehaving students. (PGD)

The data gathered indicate that most of the parents questioned as to their perception of a counselor's role agree with what the counselors themselves feel they should be doing, in accordance with standards set up for school counselors. (Author)

Reprinted from "INTERCOM in the San Mateo City Schools, newsletter of the San Mateo, California, City School System; illustrated. (Editor/RD)