Missionaries or educators? Parent education for poverty families.

An adequately designed parent education program must provide answers to four central issues: (1) specification of the goals to be accomplished, (2) the message to be conveyed to the parents, (3) the most appropriate method to effect the desired change, and (4) some definitive evaluation of change related to parent participation. These four issues are considered with reference to a demonstration program of parent education for mothers of first-grade children in middle- and lower-class, white and Negro families. Implications for programs with poverty families are suggested.