Parent Training Programs

The following programs are designed to help parents support their children's learning:

• The Training of Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) program was created by Joyce Epstein at the Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning in Baltimore, Maryland. The program consists of materials that educators give parents to help children with school. It has produced statistically significant increases in students' reading skills.
• The Megaskills program, by Dorothy Rich of the Home and School Institute in Washington, D.C., is a comprehensive educational program that emphasizes parent involvement. It contains written and audiovisual materials that parents can use to help children at home. (The U.S. Department of Education has posted some of these materials on the Internet under the title Summer Home Learning Recipes.)
• The Parents as Teachers Program of the Parents as Teachers National Center in St. Louis, Missouri, trains parents of children from birth to age 5 in ways to help youngsters learn. The program has generated significant improvements in students' standardized test scores in reading and math.
• The Say Yes to a Youngster's Future program, developed by the National Urban Coalition, has produced significant gains in math, reading, and science skills. The program helps parents promote a child's knowledge and interest in learning (Beane, 1990).
• The Parent Leadership Institute has been established by the Connecticut Commission on Children in Hartford, Connecticut, to train parents in ways they can help their children do better in school.

Additional information for these organizations is listed in the Contacts section at the end of this Pathways issue.

References