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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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Advocating for the Rights of Undocumented Families

Moria Cappio and Melanie Reyes from The Children’s Aid Society share their experiences reinventing family engagement strategies in their East Harlem Early Head Start/Head Start program to reach out to immigrant families by including parent civic advocacy. Cappio and Reyes also describe how using an advocacy evaluation tool helped them navigate these uncharted waters.

Moria Cappio , Melanie Reyes (May 2010) Research Report

Alternative Designs for Community-Based Research: Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Initiative

Stephen Bagnato, Robert Grom, and Leon Haynes describe an evaluation design that provides scientific rigor in a community setting.

Stephen Bagnato, Ed.D. , Robert Grom, Leon Haynes (Fall 2003) Evaluation Exchange Article

Changing the Conversation About Home Visiting: Scaling Up With Quality

The purpose of this paper is to determine what the evidence and conventional wisdom say about scaling up home visiting as one of the best ways to support parents and promote early childhood development. To answer this question, we examined the available research evidence, interviewed leaders from six of the national home visiting models, and interviewed researchers who have studied home visiting. The area of interest for guiding future research, practice, and policy is whether home visiting can be delivered at broad scale and with the quality necessary to attain demonstrable, positive outcomes for young children and their parents.

Heather Weiss , Lisa Klein (May 2007) Research Report

Closing the Achievement Gap: Head Start and Beyond

Ed Zigler, Ron Haskins, and G. Reid Lyon discuss the past and future of Head Start, the country's first federally funded early childhood program.

Lisa G. Klein (Summer 2004) Evaluation Exchange Article

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: A Model to Facilitate Meaningful Partnerships for Families and Schools

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention model where parents, educators, and service providers work collaboratively to address children's developmental needs in a Head Start program.

Susan M. Sheridan , Brandy L. Clarke, Diane C. Marti, Jennifer D. Burt, Ashley M. Rohlk (April 2005) Research Report

Embracing the Use of Data for Continuous Program Improvement

In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Heidi Rosenberg discusses how continuous improvement processes can strengthen family engagement strategies, and outlines the mindset and key practices that organizations need to adopt in order to use data to understand and improve upon their work.

Heidi Rosenberg (September 17, 2013) Research Report

Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education

This research brief synthesizes the latest research that demonstrates how family involvement contributes to young children's learning and development. The brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement—specifically, the research studies that link family involvement in early childhood to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works.

Heather B. Weiss , Margaret Caspe and M. Elena Lopez (Spring 2006) Research Report

Family Involvement in Early Childhood Programs: How to Choose the Right Program for Your Child

What is family involvement and how can families choose early childhood programs that encourage it? This issue of Early Childhood Digest looks at these questions, and provides information on how to choose an early childhood program that encourages family involvement.

Priscilla M. D. Little (May 1998) Research Report

Family Involvement in Mathematics

This issue of the FINE Forum focuses on promising practices to engage families and communities in supporting students' mathematical proficiency.

Harvard Family Research Project (Spring 2003) Research Report

Family Resource Centers: Where School Readiness Happens

Family resource centers are places where you can get information on raising and educating your child. This issue of the Early Childhood Digest describes family resource centers and how they can help you get your child ready for school.

Priscilla M. D. Little (October 1998) Research Report

Family Support Services Promote School Readiness

This study demonstrates that a wide variety of parent and child factors are linked to school readiness and that parenting education and support services promote family activities that relate to positive child outcomes.

Shari Golan , Donna Spiker, Carl Sumi (December 2005) Research Report

Head Start as a Family Support Program: Renewing a Community Ethic

This report discusses the efforts of six Head Start programs to address the challenges and goals raised in the 1993 report, Creating a 21st Century Head Start. It assesses their progress in several key areas: expanding enrollment, strengthening parent involvement, addressing issues such as homelessness and substance abuse, improving staff training, bridging research and practice, and collaborating with schools and social service agencies, and addressing issues such as homelessness and substance abuse.

Elaine M. Replogle (1995) Research Report

Kindergarten Home Visit Project

The need for home–-school collaboration begins even before a child’s the first day of school. Researcher Amy Schulting shares data from a recent evaluation study to describe how one home visiting project eases children's transition to kindergarten.

Amy Schulting (January 2009) Research Report

Learning Together—Exploring a Nonprofit-Museum-Preschool-Family Partnership Model

Through a resourceful museum-preschool-family partnership involving cultural institutions across the city, an organization in New York City is providing rich anywhere, anytime learning opportunities for young children from low-income households. Learn how the Literacy Through Culture program hopes to increase families’ enthusiasm and appreciation for learning in a variety of contexts and build strong parent–child interactions around fun learning activities.

Barbara Palley, Cathleen Wiggins, Melissa Ptacek, Shanta Lawson, and Charlene Melville (June 9, 2014) Research Report

Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice

Examine how effective family-strengthening interventions can positively impact families and children in this practitioner-friendly brief from Harvard Family Research Project. Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice is based on our review of interventions that have been rigorously evaluated through experimental and quasi-experimental studies. We offer educators, service providers, and evaluators recommendations for creating successful programs and evaluations.

Margaret Caspe , M. Elena Lopez (October 2006) Research Report

Libraries Helping to Close the Opportunity Gap: Maryland Library Partnership 

Through innovative and engaging family activities, the Maryland Library Partnership is playing a crucial community role by promoting learning anywhere, anytime and reaching out to parents to help them with their children’s learning, improve literacy, and close the vocabulary gap between low-income learners and their peers.

 

Nathan Driskell (June 9, 2014) Research Report

Making Data Come Alive for Families through Young Children’s Play

Amy Horenbeck, training director from the Tools of the Mind program based at the Center for Improving Early Learning at the Metropolitan State College of Denver in Colorado, discusses a different approach to early childhood education and using children's work as a unique type of student data to track development and share children's progress with parents.

Amy Horenbeck (October 2010) Research Report

Math Is Everywhere, When We Know What to Look For

Learning mathematics starts in infancy and happens anywhere, anytime. In this commentary, Taniesha Woods explores what young children need to know about math, what environments rich in mathematics learning look like, and how families can support children’s math development.

Taniesha A. Woods (May 24, 2016) Research Report

New Research on Family Involvement and Academic Achievement (Symposium)

This multiple paper symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association followed up on our panel session in 2005. It featured four research studies that used nuanced definitions of family involvement and cutting-edge methodologies to address processes of family involvement and academic outcomes for disadvantaged children across the developmental continuum.

Heather Weiss , Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey, Wendy Barnard, Suzanne Bouffard, Eric Dearing, and Christine McWayne (April 11, 2006) Conferences and Presentations

Ongoing Child Assessment and Family Engagement: New Opportunities to Engage Families in Children’s Learning and Development

This paper by the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement, a new center formed by HFRP and Brazelton Center at Children's Hospital Boston and other partners for the Office of Head Start, focuses on child assessment data as a tool for parent and family engagement in the early childhood arena. It is the first in a series that will help early childhood care and education programs identify ways that they can share information in order to strengthen partnerships and work toward common goals.

National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (March 2011) Research Report

Padres de Familia como Agentes de Cambio

En este Perfil de Liderando el Ramo, Sandra Gutiérrez, la directora nacional del programa Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors, programa que está enfocado en la familia latina, comparte su visión de cómo las familias son fundamentales para transformar las vidas de nuestros hijos y de nuestras comunidades. [This article is also available in English as Parents as Agents of Change.]

Sandra Gutiérrez (September 17, 2013) Research Report

Parent Involvement and the Social and Academic Competencies of Urban Kindergarten Children

This study shows positive social and academic outcomes for low-income, minority kindergarten children whose parents promote learning in the home and contact schools regularly.

Christine McWayne , Marissa Owsianik (October 2004) Research Report

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework: Promoting Family Engagement and School Readiness from Prenatal to Age 8

This framework is a vital tool for early childhood education and care providers seeking to build effective family engagement strategies. It was developed by the Office of Head Start with the assistance of the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement for the Office of Head Start

Office of Head Start (August 2011) Research Report

Parents as Agents of Change

In this Leading the Field profile, Sandra Gutierrez, national director of the Latino family-focused Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program, shares her vision of how families are fundamental to transforming the lives of our children and our communities. [Este artículo también está disponible en español como Padres de Familia como Agentes de Cambio.]

Sandra Gutierrez (September 17, 2013) Research Report

Parents Come to Kindergarten: A Unique Junior Kindergarten Program for Four Year Olds and Their Families

A preschool parenting and readiness program in Canada results in higher school readiness among program children and families, as well as family readiness among teachers.

Janette Pelletier (November 2002) Research Report

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project