The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement Webinar Series
These webinars aim to provide opportunities for stakeholders representing national, regional, and local organizations to learn about family, school, and community engagement research and innovations, as well as best practices from the field. Learn more >
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Transforming Schools Through Family, School, and Community Engagement
April 29, 2010, 1:30-3:00 p.m. (EDT) An archive of the presentation is available to view here.
The first installment of the webinar series addresses the question, How can stakeholders build the capacity to transform schools through effective family, school, and community engagement?
This webinar includes real-life examples of innovative family and community engagement efforts, as well as a discussion about how to successfully integrate family engagement systems into student learning and how to sustain engagement efforts across the cradle-to-career pathway.
Presenters include Jim Shelton and Anna Hinton from the U.S. Department of Education, Heather Weiss from Harvard Family Research Project, Nina Sazer O'Donnell from United Way Worldwide, and Ron Mirr from the Iowa State PIRC and RM Consulting.
WEBINAR 1 RESOURCES
Here is a collection of HFRP resources to broaden understanding of issues discussed during the first webinar, listed by topic.
- Research-based definition and framework
- Systemic family engagement at the district level
- Innovations in family and community engagement
- Data use
- Professional development
- Developmental continuum
A PDF of the presentation slides is also available here.
RESEARCH-BASED DEFINITION AND FRAMEWORK
- Family Engagement as a Systemic, Sustained, and Integrated Strategy to Promote Student Achievement
This paper offers an expanded definition of family engagement based on research about children’s learning and the relationships among families, schools, and communities in support of such learning.
- Reframing Family Involvement in Education: Supporting Families to Support Educational Equity
This research review, part of the Equity Matters research initiative at the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, argues that family involvement in education is a powerful but neglected tool to support children’s learning and development.
SYSTEMIC FAMILY ENGAGEMENT AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL
- Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement
HFRP teamed up with the National PTA to bring you this ground-breaking policy brief that examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement. The brief spotlights how six school districts have used innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement “systems at work.”
INNOVATIONS IN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
- Taking Leadership, Innovating Change: Profiles in Family, School, and Community Engagement
This new report from the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group contains twelve examples of leading innovations in family engagement as an integral and effective strategy in systemic education reform. - Lessons from Evaluators’ Experiences with Scale
Heidi Rosenberg of Harvard Family Research Project and Helen Westmoreland of the Flamboyan Foundation spoke with several evaluators and program administrators about their experience evaluating the process of going to scale in this article from the Spring 2010 issue of HFRP's Evaluation Exchange.
- Five Big Ideas for Data Rigor….Without Mortis
Citing examples such as The New York City Department of Education's Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), as well as the New Visions School Data Snapshot, this guest blog post by HFRP Founder & Director Heather Weiss highlights the benefits of accessible and usable data systems to support learning in and out of school.
- Preparing Educators to Engage Families, 2nd edition (Sage)
Preparing Educators to Engage Families supports teacher training and professional development in the area of family engagement. This volume helps prepare teachers and other professionals to partner with the families of elementary school children for student success and positive development. This second edition pairs child development theory with research-based teaching cases that reflect critical dilemmas in family-school-community relations, especially among families for whom poverty and cultural differences are daily realities.
- Family Involvement Makes a Difference Series
This set of research briefs examines one set of complementary learning linkages: family involvement in the home and school in early childhood, elementary school, middle school, and high school settings. Taken together, these briefs make the case that family involvement predicts children's academic achievement and social development as they progress from early childhood programs through K–12 schools and into higher education. - Resource Guide for Family Engagement Across the Developmental Pathway
This bibliographic resource builds on the work presented in the Family Involvement Makes a Difference series to provide you with a selected listing of recent publications across the full developmental spectrum. Included are research reports, examples of best practices, and toolkits that show how communities and schools can reach out to families to meaningfully engage them in their children’s educational journey, from readying them for kindergarten through preparing for post-secondary college or training.