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The National Military Family Association is an organization with strong grassroots support balanced with professionalism that makes us a leader in the field. Not only do we support military families - we are military families. Spouses, parents, and family members make up our staff and board positions. We speak up on behalf of military families and empower husbands, wives, and children to understand and access their benefits. Based on what we hear from our members, we meet the needs of service members and their families with insightful recommendations, innovative programs, and grassroots efforts to better the quality of life for military families.

Educators across the nation have long declared the importance of family involvement in children's education. Considering the large amount of time children spend outside of school, up to 87% of waking hours, it is easy to see how families have a profound impact on children's educational lives. Families dramatically influence the degree to which children are engaged in school and how they identify themselves as learners. A strong family-school partnership will improve both academic and behavioral outcomes for children.

Due to the expanding volume of information on the Web, parents and professionals often have difficulty locating the information they want. Even when they find information that seems relevant, they have difficulty determining if it is credible. The Child & Family WebGuide describes trustworthy websites on topics of interest to parents and professionals. All the sites listed on the WebGuide have been systematically evaluated by graduate students and faculty in child development. These sites have been selected from thousands that are available on the Web, based primarily on the quality of the information they provide. The goal of the WebGuide is to give the public easy access to the best child development information on the Web. There are five main categories of information: family/parenting, education/learning, typical child development, health/mental health, and resources/recreation. The first four categories contain sites with research-based information. The fifth category, resources/recreation, contains sites with information about specific programs and things to do. The resources/recreation sites, which were added at the request of parents, do not contain research-based information. The WebGuide also offers an option of searching for sites that are especially relevant to a particular age group (topics by age) and it offers several features requested by parents (e.g., ask an expert sites; research news sites).

"We call on educators, policymakers, business leaders, families, and community members to work together on a whole child approach to education. What will prepare each young person to work in careers that have not yet been invented; to think both critically and creatively; and to evaluate massive amounts of information, solve complex problems, and communicate well? Research, practice, and common sense confirm that a whole child approach to education will develop and prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow. Every school, community, classroom, educator, student, and family has unique challenges and strengths, and has a role to play in ensuring that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Collectively we have the knowledge, skill, and ability to meet these challenges and share these strengths. Join us and our whole child partners as we change the conversation about education and move from a vision for educating the whole child to action that results in successful, well-rounded young people. Explore resources and opportunities for action here and on ASCD.org, and together we'll change the face of education policy and practice. Taken together across all five tenets and the central necessities of collaboration, coordination, and integration, our indicators related to each whole child tenet may serve as a needs assessment, set of strategic goals and outcomes, framework for decision making, or the definition of what a whole child approach to education truly requires."

Established at Johns Hopkins University in 1996, NNPS invites schools, districts, states, and organizations to join together and use research-based approaches to organize and sustain excellent programs of family and community involvement that will increase student success in school.

Welcome to the National Black Child Development Institute online. For the past 40 years, the National Black Child Development Institute has been steadfast in its mission to improve and advance the lives of Black children and their families, through advocacy and education. Along with our affiliate network - composed of volunteers from across the nation - we have worked to improve child welfare services, make universal early care and education a reality, build family support services, press for educational reform and provide vital information regarding our children's health. As we are now well into the new millennium, it is critical that we continue to dedicate ourselves to giving every child a chance. We believe that such a vision should recognize the pivotal role that all members of our community must play if equity and access are to become a reality for our children. This includes parents, the faith community, social and civic clubs, barber shops, and schools - all of us must become part of the mobilization on behalf of our children.

"Child Welfare Information Gateway connects child welfare and related professionals to comprehensive information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. We feature the latest on topics from prevention to permanency, including child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption."

Our scales are designed to assess process quality in an early childhood or school age care group. Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, parents, and other adults, among the children themselves, and the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment, as well as those features, such as space, schedule and materials that support these interactions. Process quality is assessed primarily through observation and has been found to be more predictive of child outcomes than structural indicators such as staff to child ratio, group size, cost of care, and even type of care, for example child care center or family child care home (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips, 1995).

Almost every family has experienced a time when their child behaves in ways that seem very different from her usual behavior. There are many types of challenging behavior that may seem confusing, inappropriate or even frightening. Some children may act out in violent ways, like biting, kicking, or hitting themselves or others with objects. Understanding why this behavior occurs and addressing it in a positive way can help prevent future occurrences. This link will take you to information on challenging behavior.

This site contains inclusion resources for teachers, paraeducators, administrators, youth, parents & family members, self-advocates, related services providers, and community members.

This site is a collaborative project of the University of Arkansas for Medical Science, The Arkansas Children's Hospital, and the Jones Family Center. It has numerous links for parents and teachers. See the "Handouts" sections for useful information, which is available in both English and Spanish.

Positive Discipline is a program based on the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs and designed to teach young people to become responsible, respectful and resourceful members of their communities. Based on the best selling Positive Discipline books by Dr. Jane Nelsen and co-authors Lynn Lott, Cheryl Erwin, Kate Ortolano, Mary Hughes, Mike Brock, Lisa Larson and others, it teaches important social and life skills in a manner that is deeply respectful and encouraging for both children and adults (including parents, teachers, childcare providers, youth workers, and others). Recent research tells us that children are "hardwired" from birth to connect with others, and that children who feel a sense of connection to their community, family, and school are less likely to misbehave. To be successful, contributing members of their community, children must learn necessary social and life skills. Positive Discipline is based on the understanding that discipline must be taught and that discipline teaches.

John Dewey wrote extensively about philosophy, psychology, education, political science, and the arts. In his very full 92 years of life (1859-1952), he not only wrote about the breadth of life, he participated in it as a teacher, social critic, political activist and involved family man. This fully produced video introduces students to his philosophy and his critical studies of education, the arts and the implications of democracy for the lives of individuals and their communities. Dewey lived in a different era of history than we do, but many of his concerns are very relevant to life today. Maintaining a democracy in the face of diverse ethnic values, educating the young to participate fully in the life of their community, and expanding individual perceptions through participation in the arts were among the issues he examined. Contemporary examples of the influence of his work include film sequences of noted educator Deborah Meier's Mission Hill School in Roxbury, Massachusetts; commentary by literature authority Louise Rosenblatt on Dewey's theories of democratic behavior and philosopher Larry Hickman's comments on the ways technology changes our experiencing of the world. (Dr. Hickman is also the director of the Center for Dewey Studies in Illinois.) Terminology and the historical context necessary for understanding Dewey's work are provided by historical materials, newly shot visuals and clever graphics. With Larry Hickman, Ph.D. This is a short clip from the film. Further information is available at www.davidsonfilms.com.

The Future of Children is a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The mission of The Future of Children is to translate the best social science research about children and youth into information that is useful to policymakers, practitioners, grant-makers, advocates, the media, and students of public policy. The project publishes two journals and policy briefs each year, and provides various short summaries of our work. Topics range widely - from income policy to family issues to education and health - with children's policy as the unifying element. The senior editorial team is diverse, representing two institutions and multiple disciplines. Since The Future of Children aims to reach a wide audience with the best objective research possible, the articles contained in the journals are literature reviews that provide a balanced view of the literature and evidence, review both basic and "policy-relevant" research to highlight what we know as well as what works, and avoid using overly technical language. The project also supports numerous outreach activities and conferences and an active website, including a blog and webcasts of many of our outreach presentations. In keeping with our commitment to reach a broad audience, we offer all electronic versions of our materials and attendance at our outreach forums free of charge. Print copies of the journal are often provided at no cost at our outreach events, and are available for sale on our website.

The Coalition for Quality Children's Media is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1991 whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children's media. KIDS FIRST! evaluates, rates and endorses children's films, DVDs, CDs, TV shows and games using volunteer, community-based juries of adults and children from diverse backgrounds and offers a variety of means to showcase and enhance consumer awareness of sponsored products. KIDS FIRST! is supported by more than 17 million teachers, librarians, media professionals, lobbyists, policymakers, child advocates, educators, parents and families nationwide. Campaign support for the KIDS FIRST! Film Critics program comes from national nonprofit organizations that include the National Education Association, REEL Fathers, National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Council of Women's Organizations, with a cumulative membership of over 17 million.

We welcome you to ZERO TO THREE's website. ZERO TO THREE is a national nonprofit organization that informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. Neuroscientists have documented that our earliest days, weeks and months of life are a period of unparalleled growth when trillions of brain cell connections are made. Research and clinical experience also demonstrate that health and development are directly influenced by the quality of care and experiences a child has with his parents and other adults. That is why at ZERO TO THREE our mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers. We know that as babies, the way we are held, talked to and cared for teaches us about who we are and how we are valued. This profoundly shapes who we will become. Early experiences set a course for a lifelong process of discovery about ourselves and the world around us. Simply put, early experiences matter. We encourage you to learn more about very young children, early development and the work of ZERO TO THREE by exploring our site.

"A teacher of early childhood education is authorized to design, implement, and evaluate developmentally appropriate learning experiences for young children from birth through grade 3 in a variety of early childhood settings and to collaborate with families, colleagues, and related service personnel to enhance the learning of all young children."

This is the site for the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, which is a federally funded, national resources center. It includes excellent resources on using observation.

The early childhood branch of the Council for Exceptional Children ( CEC). It is a major professional organization focusing on children with special needs.

This page contains resources designed by the U.S. Department of Education to assist parents with supporting their children's learning at all ages.