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www.HFRP.org

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.

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Q & A With Rebecca Parlakian: Learn Anytime With the Let's Play App

How can you turn daily bedtime and mealtime routines into learning opportunities for young children? How can commuting, shopping, and other everyday activities offer vibrant learning moments for children? Read about the Let’s Play app to learn how!

Harvard Family Research Project (September 17, 2014) Research Report

Q & A With Susan Leger Ferraro and Fran Hurley: Learning Through Technology-Infused Play

Creative anywhere, anytime learning experiences take center stage at Imajine That Museum and Educational Play Space, where families bring their children to play, socialize, and learn together as a family. Read this exciting Q and A with Susan Leger Ferraro and Fran Hurley, about how Imajine That provides an array of innovative learning opportunities to enthusiastic families.

Harvard Family Research Project (June 9, 2014) Research Report

Questions & Answers: Robert Pianta Talks About Kindergarten Transition

Ensuring children's smooth transition from early education programs to kindergarten requires that attention be paid to the resources and linkages among schools, child care and early education services, and families. In this Q+A, Robert Pianta, professor of Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia, shares his recent research on children's transitions and gives tips on how to support families during this time.

Harvard Family Research Project (Spring 2002) Research Report

Quilting Stories of Innovation in Family Engagement

A collection of innovative family engagement practices with a link for you to share with us your family engagement story!

Harvard Family Research Project (January 2016) Research Report

Racing to the Top: Maryland's Promising Practices in Family Engagement

Maryland is embedding a new family engagement definition statewide as a foundation of policy and infrastructure. Through comprehensive partnerships, the state brings to scale family engagement approaches and launches new initiatives.

Nathan Driskell (September 17, 2014) Research Report

Reading Interactive Math Storybooks

Researchers from Teachers College, Columbia University, explore how a relatively new type of book– interactive math storybooks – can help parents appreciate and foster their child’s mathematical thinking.

Herbert Ginsburg, Colleen Uscianowski, Victoria Almeda, Cassie Freeman (May 24, 2016) Research Report

Ready for Success: Creating Collaborative and Thoughtful Transitions into Kindergarten

Because early social performance and academic achievement are predictors of later school success, ensuring that children get off to a good start in kindergarten is critical. This brief, by Harvard Family Research Project's Christine Patton and Justina Wang, examines important elements of high-quality kindergarten transition strategies and profiles promising practices from six states that take an integrated and collaborative approach to helping kindergartners enter school ready for success.

Christine Patton , Justina Wang (September 20, 2012) Research Report

Research and Advocacy Collaboration: A New Jersey Case Study

Too often vital research in the early care and education field does not get used effectively for advocacy purposes. While researchers and advocates often share the same goals, they tend to operate on separate tracks. This brief explores how research and advocacy can be bridged for greater effect using strategic communications. By definition, strategic communications means a deliberate plan or tactics for using communications as a channel for achieving a certain result. Collaborative work in the state of New Jersey around the goal of achieving a comprehensive and quality early care and education system is used as a backdrop for learning about effective practice.

Julia Coffman (January 2002) Research Report

Research Spotlight: Families and Digital Media in Young Children's Learning

These resources look at issues related to digital media and learning in early childhood and focus on such topics as children’s media use in the 21st century, family perspectives on children’s media use, and research-based guidance for practitioners and parents.

Harvard Family Research Project (February 19, 2014) Research Report

Resource Guide for Early Childhood Transitions: Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography provides a selected listing of journal articles, research briefs, and reports that focus on early childhood transitions and school readiness.  They cover a variety of topics central to the issue of early childhood transitions, including family engagement and home–school and program–school partnerships. Because the Head Start program is one of the most frequently studied early childhood initiatives, many of the resources focus on the transition from Head Start to preschool/kindergarten.

Harvard Family Research Project , Briana Chan (April 2011, updated September 2011) Bibliography

Resource Guide for Family-Centered Child Care

This guide offers ideas and resources for implementing family support principles in child care, and an annotated bibliography of up-to-date publications and training materials that child care providers can use to improve their efforts to support families.

Saren Eyre (June 1998) Research Report

Rethinking the Evaluation of Family Strengthening Strategies: Beyond Traditional Program Evaluation Models

Charles Bruner of the Child and Family Policy Center outlines three factors of good family strengthening programs that evaluators are not adequately measuring in their evaluations.

Charles Bruner, Ph.D. (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

Sharing Assessment Data With Preschool Families in Preparation for Kindergarten

What are the benefits and challenges of sharing assessment data with preschool families? How can you do so effectively? A preschool teacher writes about her experiences, and provides valuable tips on how to share data with families in preparation for kindergarten.

Nell Shapiro (September 17, 2014) Research Report

SPARKing Innovation

Tony Berkley of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation describes the application of a theory of change to a complex initiative to facilitate team learning, strategic management, and program improvement.

Tony Berkley (Spring 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Successful Family Engagement in the Classroom: What teachers need to know and be able to do to engage families in raising student achievement

HFRP invited the Flamboyan Foundation—a private foundation focused on improving educational outcomes for children in Washington, DC and Puerto Rico—to share its classroom family engagement rubric with FINE. This rubric, and accompanying article, provides districts, school leaders, and teachers with a clear picture of what effective family engagement looks like in the classroom through concrete descriptions of how teachers demonstrate strong family engagement through their conversations and daily practice.

Lela Spielberg (March 2011) Research Report

Supporting Governors' Early Childhood Policy Decisions: The Role of Research

Anna Lovejoy, from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, describes how the organization keeps governors informed about emerging issues in early childhood.

Anna Lovejoy (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

Taking the Lead in Family Engagement: A Message to Our Followers on Presidents’ Day

Presidents’ Day is a time to reflect on the importance of leadership. Learn how policymakers, researchers, and practitioners are leading the field of family engagement.

Harvard Family Research Project (February 13, 2015) Research Report

Teaching the Teachers: Preparing Educators to Engage Families for Student Achievement

Harvard Family Research Project and the National PTA® have teamed up to bring you the third brief in our ground-breaking series about family engagement policy, highlighting the need for teacher education programs to prepare teachers to better work with families.

Margaret Caspe , M. Elena Lopez, Ashley Chu, & Heather B. Weiss (May 2011) Research Report

The Build Initiative: An Evaluation of State-Level System-Building Efforts

Barbara Gebhard of Build describes the initiative's interactive evaluation approach.

Barbara Gebhard (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Challenges of Evaluating State Family Support and Education Initiatives: An Evaluation Framework

This paper provided an evaluation framework to analyze four state initiatives that provide multi-generational family support and education programs. The paper documented preliminary findings and was presented at The Public Policy and Family Support amd Education Programs Colloquium in Annapolis, MD, April 26-28, 1989.

Heather Weiss , Robert Halpern (April 1989) Research Report

The Countdown to Kindergarten: A Collaborative Approach

Sonia Gómez-Banrey, Director of Countdown to Kindergarten (CDtoK) for Boston Public Schools (BPS), and Katherine (Kacy) Hughes, Senior Project Manager for Early Childhood and Family Learning at Boston Children’s Museum, highlight key components of the collaboration between BPS and the Museum as part of the CDtoK program to help BPS families better prepare their children for kindergarten.

Sonia Gómez-Banrey , Katherine Hughes (February 7, 2013) Research Report

The Current State of Early Childhood Education

Lisa Klein, guest editor for this issue, reflects on the progress made inthe early childhood field over the past 40 years and on the work that still has to be done.

Lisa G. Klein, Ph.D. (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Home Visit Forum: Understanding and Improving the Role of Home Visitation

Heather Weiss, HFRP director, describes a consortium of national organizations working to improve home visitation models.

Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D. (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Road From Research to Outcomes

Jana Martella, from the Council of Chief State School Officers, describes a data-driven approach to developing and integrating policy into the nation's school systems.

Jana Martella (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Transition to Afterschool: One City’s Approach to Connecting Young Children and Their Families to Learning and Enrichment Opportunities

What steps can programs take to help families successfully transition to school and afterschool? How can families make informed choices about afterschool opportunities? What information do families need in this process? This video demonstrates how Cambridge, Massachusetts, is addressing these and related questions to help connect families to afterschool learning and enrichment opportunities prior to school entry. 

Christine Patton (June 9, 2014) Research Report

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project