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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.

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.

"Parent involvement is crucial to the health and well-being of a child. As a parent, you are the most important influence in your child's success in school and in life. In this role, you have a fresh opportunity every day to get involved with your child. Parent involvement in children's education allows kids to perform better in school, and navigate more easily some of the challenges of growing up, such as bullying. PTA is committed to being the leading resource for parent involvement. We offer comprehensive resources for helping parents get involved and stay involved in the lives of their children. Look through these parent involvement categories and learn about new ways you can make a difference in your child's life. This section also serves as a clearinghouse for parent involvement ideas and resources. "

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.

"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."

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.

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).

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.