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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All Publications & Resources |
Thinking Like an Educator: An Integrative Approach to Preparing Educators
Veronica Boix Mansilla and Robert Kegan from the Harvard Graduate School of Education describe a new course that uses an integrative approach to help education students learn to “think like an educator.”
Examining the Efficacy of Two Models of Preschool Professional Development in Language and Literacy
Nancy Clark-Chiarelli from Education Development Center, Inc. describes an evaluation of two approaches to early literacy professional development—one with a traditional face-to-face mode of delivery and one with a technology-enhanced component.
Theory of Action in Practice
Claudia Weisburd and Tamara Sniad from Foundations, Inc. describe the use of a theory of change and a theory of action to help address questions about how to develop and evaluate professional development for after school staff.
Pathways from Workforce Development to Child Outcomes
Harvard Family Research Project explores connections between workforce development and child outcomes in four human service sectors.
Building an Evaluation Tool Kit for Professional Development
Jennifer Buher-Kane, Nancy Peter, and Susan Kinnevy of the Center for Research on Youth and Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania share their experience of creating a tool kit designed specifically for those who provide professional development to out-of-school time program staff.
Evaluating a Professional Development “Cascade”: From Facilitators to University Faculty to Early Childhood Providers
Caroline Wilkinson and Shelley Billig from RMC Research Corporation describe their evaluation of the New England Professional Development Initiative's cascade approach to professional development in early childhood education.
New & Noteworthy: Expanded Web Only Version
This web only version of the New & Noteworthy section features an expanded annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Professional Development.
Coaching for Quality
Sarah Jonas describes the Children's Aid Society's model of site-based coaching for quality after school programming and the supports they provide to build the capacity of their coaches.
Who is the Afterschool Workforce?
Beth Miller, senior research advisor to the National Institute for Out-of-School Time (NIOST), and Ellen Gannett, codirector of NIOST, discuss the characteristics of the after school workforce.
Staff Characteristics and Professional Development in Quality After School Programs
Denise Huang describes her work with the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning to identify best practices for learning in after school programs, including characteristics of effective professional development.
Family Strengthening Interventions: Evidence-Based Practices
The purpose of this class is to provide professional skills that will help students to select, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based family strengthening interventions. Students will increase their knowledge, skills, and expertise in the most up-to-date information on effective family strengthening interventions in their area of primary interest.
Focus on Families! How to Build and Support Family-Centered Practices in After School
This comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to understanding how to engage families in after school programs is a critical resource for after school providers looking to create or expand an existing family engagement program. It offers a research base for why family engagement matters, concrete program strategies for engaging families, case studies of promising family engagement efforts, and an evaluation tool for improving family engagement practices.
Harnessing Technology in Out-of-School Time Settings
This Snapshot reviews the role of technology in OST programs, highlighting the evaluation methods and findings about implementation and youth outcomes.
New & Noteworthy
The New & Noteworthy section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Evaluating Family Involvement Programs.
Exploring Quality Standards for Middle School After School Programs: What We Know and What We Need to Know Summit
This summit, made possible through a grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, brought together after school staff, administrators, researchers, and funders to discuss how quality assessment looks and feels different for after school programs that serve middle school youth.
Democratic Evaluation Approaches for Equity and Inclusion
Katherine Ryan, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, describes three approaches to democratic evaluation and argues that they can provide field-tested methods for addressing equity and inclusion issues in evaluations of programs for children, youth, and families.
New & Noteworthy: Expanded Web Only Version
This web only version of the New & Noteworthy section features an expanded annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Democratic Evaluation.
Evaluating Evaluation Data
Kathleen McCartney and Heather Weiss of the Harvard Graduate School of Education describe the conditions for evaluations to maintain scientific integrity and serve the public good despite a politicized environment.
Program Evaluation in a Democratic Society: The Vera Model
Tim Ross, Research Director at the Vera Institute of Justice, explains Vera's rigorous and multitiered data collection process and the benefits of partnerships with public programs.
Getting Creative in Holding Officials Accountable
Dennis Arroyo describes the performance-monitoring mechanisms that nongovernment agencies use to make public officials accountable to citizens.
The Many Forms of Democratic Evaluation
Ernest House, Emeritus Professor at the University of Colorado, argues that democratic evaluation calls for more ingenuity than other forms of evaluation and that as a result its methods can take many forms.
Combining Research Rigor and Participatory Evaluation
Anju Malhotra and Sanyukta Mathur from the International Center for Research on Women describe a study in Nepal that compared participatory and more traditional approaches to evaluating adolescent reproductive health interventions.
Twists and Turns in the Journey: Youth Activists' Use of Research in Their Campaigns for Small Schools
Kristine Lewis shares Research for Action's experience with training youth to use social science research methods in their campaigns to im-prove their local high schools.
Democratic Evaluation
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange periodical focuses on democratic evaluation. At the forefront of the discussion are equity and inclusion in the evaluation of programs for children, families, and communities, as well as evaluation to promote public accountability and transparency. Katherine Ryan leads off the issue by presenting major theoretical approaches to democratic evaluation. Several contributors examine these different strands, highlighting the importance of power sharing. Jennifer Greene emphasizes the importance of broad inclusion of stakeholder perspectives in evaluations, while Saville Kushner offers guidelines for people and communities to help evaluation reposition itself as a collaborative effort and thereby begin to address the crisis in public trust between the professional bureaucracy and citizens. Kathleen McCartney and Heather Weiss focus on public accountability, especially the conduct of flagship evaluations to maintain their scientific integrity while also serving the public good. Several contributors provide practical methods and tools to promote democratic evaluation, including the facilitation of dialogue, the training of youth researchers, the use of photovoice and cell phone technology, and access to interactive information through the Internet.
A Conversation With Jennifer Greene
Jennifer Greene of the University of Ilinois talks about her efforts to advance the theory and practice of alternative forms of evaluation, including qualitative, participatory, and mixed-method evaluation.