This study examined the home-based family literacy practices of one Hispanic family, especially focusing on the parents' memories of home-based and school-based literacy activities, current home-based literacy activities and functions, and the interface of home-based family literacy practices and school-based literacy expectations. Ethnographic data offered insight into the understanding that literacy acquisition begins in the home and is dependent and reflective of literacy experiences that are sociocultural based. These home-based family literacy activities and functions are broad in scope and are valuable forms of literacy. However, these activities of marginalized families are often regarded as unimportant and/or unrelated to school-based literacy expectations, and therefore inferior. In response to this perceived mismatch between home-based family literacy activities and school-based literacy expectations, educators approached families from a deficit perspective. This deficit assumption created a sense of devalue on the part of the parents, who assisted their children by culturally and socially relevant means. To meet the school-based literacy expectations familial relationships were jeopardized as the pressure, frustration, and guilt from educators can result in emotional and physical abuse from mother to her children.

Despite the widespread recommendation that schools "collaborate" with parents, little is found in the literature to elaborate on what this term or the common synonym "partnership" means, and further, how schools can invite diverse parental contributions to the table of educational discourse. The current study looks to contribute to the literature by analyzing the parent participation discourse in one community elementary school, utilizing critical discourse analysis and ethnographic observations. The findings reveal both school and parents' conceptions of the parents' partnership role as ancillary to that of the school's and the subsequent lack of true collaboration so advocated by the literature. Implications arise from this analysis which calls into question the examples of "collaboration" found in the literature, given the lack of theorizing regarding what collaboration inside of parent participation means. Contributions may shed light on the unintentional inequality of diverse parents in an effort toward true collaboration utilizing both the European American, middle class contributions of the educational institution alongside those of non-mainstream parents in creating an authentic educational atmosphere for diverse students.

Caregivers of children with autism will likely meet with many school professionals once their children become school-aged. These meetings can be intimidating for caregivers who are unfamiliar with special education terminology and protocol, and caregivers may feel ineffective when communicating with school personnel. The purpose of this study is to describe a training curriculum to teach caregivers ways in which to communicate during meetings with school professionals, including the kinds of questions to ask/statements to make and when to ask or make them. A detailed overview of the training procedures, the participants, and the outcomes are described here. Preliminary data suggest the training produced increases in communication skills and that caregivers found the training effective and useful.

Whole language approach.

No description available.

No description available.

This project focused on the enhancement of an existing school web page. Schools have jumped on the bandwagon in record numbers in the past couple of years publishing web pages about their schools. Cucamonga Middle School is no exception, having first published a web site in 1995. Utilizing information gathered from a survey, the author/webmaster created a redesign of the existing school webpage. The wants and needs of parents, as noted in the survey were the driving force behind the redesign.

This project describes the inception and development of a high school web site along with subsequent implementation issues, limitation, benefits, and recommendations visual design and learning principles and the history of hypermedia are also discussed, and a model is tendered for other schools to follow when constructing a web site.

This project was developed to address the complex issue of disseminating information to high school students via the World Wide Web. Topics include: the need for greater communication among instructors, students and parents, the need to utilize instructional design techniques, the backwards design process in the development of web based projects; and the need to integrate internet technology for promoting instruction and learning.

The problem of this study was a comparison of the roles and needs of middle and lower class Thai parents in helping their children's reading development. The sample was selected from the parents of the preprimary schools in Bangkok, Thailand, in the fall of 1986. A total of 366 parents, including 185 from middle class and 181 from lower class, participated in this study.