The schoolwide program at Hueco Elementary School in the Socorro Independent School District in Texas coordinates Title I and Title VII funds to encourage parental involvement. This Success for All school serves a 98 percent Hispanic, rural student population of about 620 children enrolled in grades preK-5. Its efforts to draw parents into the life of the school include bilingual home-school communications and parent workshops and activities, all of which are conducted in both Spanish and English. Parent workshops and courses address general parenting skills, including effective nurturing, child development, drug abuse prevention, and health and physical well-being. In addition, ESL courses and a computer course encourage parents to work toward their personal educational goals. All Hueco families participate in the Super Readers Program, which provides incentives for parents of preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade children to read to their children often and regularly. In addition, about 50 parents attend monthly Parent Communication Council meetings, at which they discuss their concerns about the school with the principal and vice principal. Finally, teachers receive release time from school to visit families of students who are doing poorly in school or are experiencing noteworthy success. Parental participation at Hueco has grown beyond fundraising and clerical work to include participation in school decision making and classroom instruction, advancing their own educational goals, and contributing to students' learning at home. In addition, student attendance averages 96 percent, and as of the 1997-98 school year, on average, students in each grade level scored at or above the 84th percentile on the TAAS.

At Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque, the bilingual home-school liaison person (funded by Title VII) links students, parents, and the school, and helps parents obtain the services and information they need to participate actively in their children's education. To address low school attendance among students (85 percent of whom are Hispanic), Rio Grande created the liaison position about five years ago. The liaison person meets with parents when their students register, and makes home visits when necessary to explain curriculum or other education-related issues. As the liaison person began to visit students' homes and saw that many of the families needed social and health care services to solve problems that often prevent students from attending school regularly, he began making referrals to appropriate agencies. The liaison person also ensures that parents stay informed about their children's education by explaining curriculum, serving as a translator at parent-teacher conferences, and helping students study for the ACT and fill out college applications if needed. A recent evaluation report indicates that the senior stability rate-the proportion of seniors who enrolled by the 20th school day and graduated in May-increased by 6 percent between 1995 and 1999 (to 82 percent).

The Dysart Unified School District Migrant Preschool program in El Mirage, Arizona, trains migrant parents (referred to as parent mentors) to persuade other Hispanic families to learn parenting skills and study child development. The mentors reportedly boost parental involvement in the program, in large part because the mentors have the same cultural and economic background as participating parents. In the past, when there was a higher percentage of teachers who were unfamiliar with the demands of agricultural labor and the culture of the migrant farmworkers, both the children and their parents found it frustrating to try to communicate. Some staff said this was perhaps due less to differences in home language than to differences in culture. For example, women in the migrant community-unlike either Anglos or Mexican Americans-show respect to teachers by averting their eyes during conversation. Teachers often misperceived this display of good manners as a lack of openness or interest. In addition, work in the fields sometimes left odors that permeated families' clothing, creating the impression that migrant families had poor hygiene rather than being seen as an inevitable consequence of agricultural work. The training and experience of migrants hired as mentors enabled them to act as bridges between two groups-parents and teachers-who wanted the best for the children.

Many Hispanic parents may hold high aspirations for their children's school success but lack the knowledge needed to guide their children through American school systems (Cooper, Denner, & Lopez, 1999). To help build a strong partnership between the home and school, staff at Liberty High School in New York City provide parents with a wealth of information about student learning. Hispanic students make up roughly one-third of the Liberty school population. The school recently used some of its Title VII funds to develop a 90-page book-translated into five languages, including Spanish- about resources for parents. The book has sections on the rights and responsibilities of parents, ways to use New York City as a resource, and educational resources.

The Migrant Preschool Program in Dysart Unified School District of El Mirage, Arizona, began in 1985, when most of the families enrolled in the district were full-time migrant agricultural laborers. Today, largely because of the decline of agriculture in the area and greater opportunities to work in construction and other occupations, only a small percentage are full-time migrants. Nevertheless, in a high percentage of households, adults continue to provide some seasonal labor to area growers, which makes their families eligible for Dysart's migrant program. According to the Dysart preschool program staff, "The most important influence in a child's education…is his or her parents and homelife." The staff aim to develop close ties between the child's home and school learning experiences, and they view parents as a valuable resource. Currently serving 80 children with federal migrant education funds, with 10 children on the waiting list, the program builds links between home and school learning in nontraditional and effective ways:

• The program recruits parent mentors from the migrant community and weaves tighter connections between the languages and cultures of home and school. Parent mentors are migrant parents who, after completing their own training, recruit and train parents in the preschool program's curriculum and in child development and parenting skills. They also accompany the classroom teachers on home visits.

• A partnership with a local community college helps migrant parents develop English proficiency, continue their own education, and prepare for paid positions as parent mentors, classroom tutors, and teachers.

The preschool parent component has three strands of training for migrant parents. At least one parent of each child in the program is required to attend 15 hours of parenting classes (Strand 1), taught by two parent mentors, and to help in the classroom for 15 hours (Strand 2) under the supervision of the classroom teachers. Strand 2 includes practicum sessions for parents with their own preschool children in the classroom. Strand 3 offers migrant parents the opportunity to attend a local community college. Program staff help parents identify sources of financial assistance, which may include federal, state, or local resources. Parents who complete Strands 1 and 2 and develop English proficiency can go on to work as paid elementary classroom tutors. Currently, eight parents work as paid classroom tutors. For Dysart's migrant parents, the program offers a pathway to further education as well as a better school experience for their children. In addition, although no analysis of test score data currently exists, school staff report that anecdotal evidence indicates that participating preschool children enter first grade much better prepared than their peers who have not participated in the program.

The Success for All (SFA) program is currently implemented in 1,500 schools nationwide. In the Socorro and El Paso school districts, SFA operates in five Title I schoolwide programs, each of which enrolls between 90 and 95 percent Hispanic students. SFA includes regular staff development and principal training, as well as a parent/family support team for outreach to parents. The team, made up of teachers, a counselor, a community representative, and parents, works with families to ensure student academic success. A family support team manual explains in detail the four premises of the SFA program: attendance, academic intervention, parental involvement, and integration of services. The team meets weekly to discuss issues that may affect student learning, such as inadequate sleep or poor attendance, and ways of working with parents to help their children succeed.

The Alliance Schools Initiative works to substantially increase student achievement by developing strong community-based constituencies of parents, teachers, and community leaders in low-income areas throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, Louisiana, and Nebraska. About 200 schools currently use the Alliance model; in 1997-98, 118 schools in Texas alone were Alliance schools.

The Alliance is a partnership between the Interfaith Education Fund (IEF), the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation (SIAF) Network, state education agencies, and school districts. Most Alliance schools enroll large proportions of students from minority families living in low-income communities. Low student achievement, disunity among school staff, and little parental involvement are initially characteristic of many of these schools. The initiative works to restructure the relationship among stakeholders in school communities-parents, teachers, school administrators, students, community and business leaders, and public officials-in order to increase student learning and overall student performance.

Becoming an Alliance school means that school staff, parents, and other community members learn about education reform and the cultural shifts that they must make if students are to meet state and local standards. The initiative formalizes the relationships and commitments among stakeholders, each of whom agrees to work with IEF and their local IAF organization to improve the quality and performance of a school. State education agencies provide some flexibility, such as waivers from state guidelines, as well as supplementary funding to schools willing to redesign and reform their entire educational programs.

The process of becoming an Alliance school begins with identifying leaders and key concerns of parents and staff and developing relationships among all partners. The initiative implements strategic, targeted training for teachers and administrators and provides services, education, and training for parents and community leaders as they participate in school reform efforts. Some effective methods Alliance schools use to enact change are:

• Core teams of principals, teachers, parents, and community members receive training to conduct house meetings where community members, parents, and school staff can discuss their concerns and draft a plan of action for improving the school

• Walk for Success, a strategy in which parents, teachers, community members, and administrators walk the streets of the community to talk with parents about the school

• Training for parents to help their children with homework and other strategies to get parents involved in their children's education

• Other classes based on parents' self-identified needs, including, for example, Adult ESL, parenting skills, computer literacy

Between 1997-98, 87 percent of all Texas Alliance schools increased their percentage of students passing all sections of the TAAS. Economically disadvantaged students in the schools showed more improvement than their wealthier peers.

The ASPIRA Association, Inc., is building four new federally funded Community Technology Centers in Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Carolina, Puerto Rico. ASPIRA will expand existing community centers to include computer learning rooms with Internet-connected computers and educational software. With additional assistance from the business community, ASPIRA plans to establish technology centers at all ASPIRA sites. Education Secretary Richard Riley noted that the centers "can help parents and students who don't have computers at home link learning at school with learning anywhere through technology and bring the power of computers and information-age resources to those who have the greatest need" (U.S. Department of Education, 1999a, 6).

In 1989, an effort to increase the number of Hispanic engineers and scientists resulted in the creation of the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education (CAHSEE), a nonprofit organization. CAHSEE fosters scientific and engineering education through four different programs, the oldest of which is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Institute. Nationally, STEM offers an intensive, five-week summer instructional program to about 250 academically promising Hispanic and other minority and economically disadvantaged students. With the goal of creating leaders who are scientists and engineers, the program serves students in grades 7-11 and focuses on mathematics and science instruction, while also emphasizing the development of leadership skills and civic involvement and commitment. Students attend the program from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, with six hours devoted to classroom instruction and two hours to individualized tutoring. Academic instruction includes mathematical topology and precalculus, descriptive geometry and mathematical logic, and probability and statistics for engineers and scientists. Plans are under way to extend the program to high school seniors by offering them opportunities to conduct creative research in private and government laboratories during the summer months. In Washington, D.C., which serves about 100 STEM students, George Washington University donates office and classroom space to STEM, and 45 to 50 graduate students and undergraduate seniors receive a stipend and free housing and transportation to teach the courses. STEM receives donations from parents as well as funding from NASA and various corporations and foundations.

During the nine years that the STEM Institute has been in operation, all program participants have graduated from high school-on average, with a GPA of 3.4 on a 4.0 scale. Forty-five percent of STEM students score over 1200 on the SAT, while 30 percent score over 1300, 15 percent score over 1400, and 10 percent score over 1500. Seventy percent go on to major in science or engineering in college, and 70 percent of those who graduate with science degrees enroll in a graduate program within two years of graduating from college.