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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Dear FINE Member,

Here are this month's FINE member announcements. Please feel free to forward this information to friends and other education colleagues.

New on the FINE Website

• Transforming Schools Through Community Organizing: A Research Review

  M. Elena Lopez, Senior Consultant for FINE, reviews current research on community organizing for school reform. Her paper looks at how community organizing differs from traditional parent involvement activities, outlines the characteristic strategies used to engage parents in organizing efforts, and describes the outcomes of these efforts.

• Syllabus: “Social Contexts of Education”

  Dennis Shirley, Professor and Chair of the Teacher Education Program at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, team-teaches his course with Boston public school teachers in an urban school setting. Themes of the course include school-family-community partnerships and community organizing for school reform. Read more about the history and rationale for the course in the Fall 2003 edition of the FINE Forum.

• Syllabus: “Education Organizing”

  Mark R. Warren, Associate Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, teaches a course on the role of community organizing in fostering school change. The course examines the many ways that community groups and schools promote the active engagement of participants to improve education.

• Syllabus: “Effective Interventions and School Reforms for At-Risk Children”

  Richard Weissbourd, Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, offers a course exploring current school initiatives and reforms to improve academic and social outcomes for at-risk children. Initiatives are evaluated using new models of resiliency and knowledge of the different sources of risk and resilience across race, class, and culture.

Current Research

• Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections

  This is the latest in a series of annual research syntheses from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) on school, family, and community connections. This report draws on 64 studies relating to academic achievement and family involvement among minority and low-income populations. Along with summarizing key findings from the research, the report discusses barriers to involvement for minority and low-income families, strategies used to address those barriers, and recommendations that local educational leaders can adapt to address their specific needs.

• Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress

  Paul Barton of Educational Testing Services (ETS) synthesizes a large body of research on factors associated with educational achievement disaggregated by race/ethnicity or income level. Of the 14 factors identified, eight relate to activities or environmental factors outside of school, including four home supports for learning: parent participation, reading to young children, amount of television viewing, and parent availability.

• Promising Program: Family Development Research Program

  Promising Practices Network gives the Family Development Research Program (FDRP) a promising grade for increasing the percentage of students performing at grade level and not engaging in violent behavior. A comprehensive early childhood program, FDRP provided home visitation, parent training, and individualized day care to single African-American, low-income mothers and their children. Program outcomes were evaluated by a 13-year longitudinal study that followed participants into their teen years.

• School Choice: Doing It the Right Way Makes a Difference

  The National Working Commission on Choice in K–12 Education was established in 2000 at the Brookings Institution to explore how communities can gain the potential benefits of new school options and choice programs while avoiding the potential harms. The final report argues that outcomes from choice programs are linked to how programs are designed and implemented. Improvements or declines in equal opportunity, desegregation, and civic cohesion depend on policy and investment factors such as student targeting, funding, parent information, student access, regulation, and accountability.

Toolkits

• Including Every Parent: A Step-by-Step Guide to Engaging and Empowering Parents at Your School

  Modeled on a successful program at the Patrick O’Hearn Elementary School in Massachusetts, Including Every Parent is the eighth publication in the Project for School Innovation's By Teachers for Teachers series. The book is written by both parents and teachers and explores specific practices that have been critical to engaging and empowering parents.

• Communities at Work: Strategic Interventions for Community Change

  For the past two decades, Local Education Funds (LEFs) have increased community understanding of education reform issues and built community capacity to improve schools and other public institutions. This report from the Public Education Network looks at community dialogue, constituency building, engaging practitioners, and many other strategic initiatives, and describes how LEFs support these community change initiatives across the country.

Surveys

• Grading Grown-ups 2002: How Do American Kids and Adults Relate?

  Why are adults not more involved in the lives of youth outside their own families? The Search Institute surveyed over 2,000 adults and youth about intergenerational interactions. The survey shows that both adults and youth believe that adult involvement is important, but few adults are currently engaged with non-related youth. The report also suggests strategies for encouraging more adult engagement.

• National Data Trends for Family Involvement in Schools

  The Child Trends DataBank summarizes trends for parent involvement in schools from 1999. Most parents have attended some meeting or event in their child's school, but parental involvement declines in higher grade levels. Levels of participation did not change significantly from levels in 1996.

Events

• 12th International Roundtable on School, Family, and Community Partnerships

  The International Network of Scholars (INET) in school, family, and community partnerships will convene at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA) to share ideas and identify new directions in research and evaluation (San Diego, California, April 12th, 2004, 8am-5pm). Proposals for presentation at the roundtable are due January 9th, 2004. To submit a proposal email Dr. Joyce L. Epstein, Johns Hopkins University, at jepstein@csos.jhu.edu.

• National Conference on Family Literacy: Strong Programs, Strong Families: Excellence Through Professional Development

  Professionals from the literacy, research, and policy fields will convene next March in Florida for the National Center for Family Literacy's annual conference.

Contact Us

Have a problem with the website or questions and comments concerning our work? Send an email to fine@gse.harvard.edu.

Enjoy!

FINE - The Family Involvement Network of Educators