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.
February FINE Newsletter: New Directions for the New Year
Volume V, Issue 1, February 7, 2013
Dear FINE Members,
In this issue of the FINE Newsletter, we discuss how innovative approaches and tools—including digital media—are helping to transform family engagement and better enable families, schools, and community-based organizations to share responsibility for student learning. Digital media are increasingly being integrated into teaching and learning, as was recently celebrated on the second annual Digital Learning Day, which highlighted how technology has been integrated into classrooms across the country. At HFRP, we strive to ensure that parents, educators, and other stakeholders understand how digital media can enhance family–school partnerships as well as instructional practice.
In this issue’s HFRP Commentary, we explore how families, schools, and community-based organizations are demonstrating their commitment to a shared responsibility model of family engagement. Among the approaches we spotlight are ways that educators are using digital media tools to connect with families and share information about student progress. These connections help parents play a meaningful role in supporting their child’s learning. In this issue’s Guest Commentary, GreatSchools founder and CEO Bill Jackson offers a vision for the future of family engagement in which parents demand more from both the educational system and themselves in order to help prepare their children for a complex, globally-connected workforce.
Our Voices from the Field selection features an article from elementary school principal Joe Mazza, who reflects on how social media and other technologies have helped to dramatically transform the way that his school connects with families and shares information about student learning. We also feature a Q&A with Sonia Gómez-Banrey, Director of Countdown to Kindergarten for Boston Public Schools (BPS), and Katherine (Kacy) Hughes, Senior Project Manager for Early Childhood and Family Learning at Boston Children’s Museum, which highlights the ways that the strategic partnership between BPS and the Museum leverages school and community resources to help families better prepare their children for kindergarten.
In our Tips and Tools section, we feature a new online parent survey developed through a partnership between Survey Monkey and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and led by Hunter Gehlbach, Karen Mapp, and Richard Weissbourd. The tool offers educators a set of validated scales that they can use to gather feedback from parents about their schools’ family engagement efforts and identify areas for improvement.
In this issue’s Research Digest, William Jeynes highlights key findings from his recent meta-analysis examining the efficacy of different types of school-based parental involvement programs. He discusses why the positive effects of school-based programs on student outcomes are greater than the effects seen with voluntary expressions of parental engagement alone.
As always, we invite your feedback on the topics we explore in this FINE Newsletter and encourage you to pass on this issue to interested friends and colleagues. We've made it even easier to share FINE content with your social networks: Find the "share" button on the left side of every page and send interesting articles via email or through other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. And join the conversation about this issue on our Facebook page.
Commentary
Transforming Family Engagement
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In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Evelyn Brosi Semenza and Heidi Rosenberg examine how innovative approaches and tools—including digital media—are helping to transform family engagement. Approaches include community–school partnerships that help promote school readiness; the integration of digital media in educators’ family engagement strategies; and the use of online tools to gather information about parents’ perspectives. |
Fast Forward—What Education Could Be in 2043
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In this Guest Commentary, GreatSchools founder and CEO Bill Jackson offers a vision for the future of family engagement in which parents demand more from both the educational system and themselves to help prepare their children for a complex, globally-connected workforce. He also lays out the steps that educators need to take to realize this vision and help students succeed. |
Voices from the Field
Connected Educators, Connected Families
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Elementary school principal and “connected educator” Joe Mazza discusses how he has integrated technology—including social media—into his school’s family engagement strategies to enhance his school’s ability to connect with families. He also stresses the importance of balancing technology-based engagement strategies with in-person relationship-building efforts. |
The Countdown to Kindergarten: A Collaborative Approach
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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. |
Tips & Tools
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This tool, developed through a partnership between the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Survey Monkey, provides educators with free access to a set of survey questions, or scales, to help them collect and analyze data about their family engagement work. These scales also provide educators with an efficient way to assess the progress of their work and identify areas for improvement. |
Research Digest
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In this Research Digest, William Jeynes highlights key findings from his recent meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of different types of school-based parental involvement programs. His study found that programs that emphasized shared reading, teacher–parent partnership, checking homework, and teacher–parent communication all had statistically significant positive effects on student outcomes. Jeynes discusses why the effects of school-based programs are greater than the effects seen with “voluntary” expressions of parental engagement. |
Family Involvement News
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We are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family engagement. View our list of links to current reports, articles, resources, and events in the field. |
Contact Us
If you experience a problem reading this newsletter or have questions and comments concerning our work, we would love to hear from you. Please send an email to fine@gse.harvard.edu.
Enjoy!
The FINE Team at Harvard Family Research Project