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.
May FINE Newsletter: Digests of Current Research and Course Syllabus
May 2004
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
-
John Diamond, Ling Wang, and Kimberly Williams Gomez compare African-American and Chinese-American parent involvement orientations to explore how these groups use cultural and social capital for their children’s education.
- Research Digest: Parents Write Their Worlds: A Parent Involvement Program Bridging Urban Schools and Families
Janise Hurtig, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, describes a participatory research project that examines a school-based writing workshop in which parents write stories, some of which are published in a literary magazine that is circulated within schools and community.
- Syllabus: People, Power, and Change
Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, teaches a course on organizing. Students learn to engage with social, economic, and political problems from an organizer’s perspective by developing their own organizing projects.
Recent Reports and Articles
- Improving Instruction Through Community Organizing
Mark Warren, Associate Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, discusses the role of community organizing in school reform.
- Challenges Facing the American Middle School
Do middle schools meet the special needs of young teens? This RAND report reviews 20 years of relevant research on middle schools and identifies the particular challenges that middle schools face today. One chapter explores factors that might account for the decline in parental involvement in the middle school years and describes school practices to encourage parents to stay involved.
- Doing What Matters: The Bridges to Success Strategy for Building Community Schools
The United Way of America chose the Bridges to Success (BTS) community school initiative in Indianapolis, Indiana, as the model for its school-linked community building efforts and replicated the model in eight states. This manual describes the core features of the BTS model and the capacities needed to support it.
- Pathways to School Reform: Integrating Constituency Building and Policy Work
This discussion paper draws on Chapin Hall Center for Children's six-year evaluation of Donors' Education Collaborative (DEC) Initiative to reform public education in New York City. One of DEC's projects, the Parent Organizing Consortium (POC), is a citywide association of grassroots organizations that brings parent voices into educational debates. The paper explores the goals, implementation, successes, and lessons of the initiative.
- The Voice of the New Teacher
This report from the Public Education Network surveys new teachers about the quality of their preparation for teaching, their experiences during the first years of teaching, and the support they received as new teachers from schools and districts. About one-third of teachers felt least prepared to work with families.
- No Child Left Behind Action Briefs
The Public Education Network (PEN) has added three new action briefs related to parent involvement. Title II Teacher and Principal Preparation describes No Child Left Behind professional development provisions for working with families. Parents' Right to Know describes provisions for informing parents on teacher quality, and Community and Parent Decision-Making: A Review describes community and parent decision-making opportunities under Title I and the No Child Left Behind Act.
- Getting Ready to Pay for College
What do parents and students know about the costs of attending college and what do they do to prepare financially? Based on the 1999 National Household Education Surveys Program, the National Center for Educational Statistics found that families tend to overestimate the costs of college. The report showed that when parents are involved in their children's schooling they are more aware of college costs and likely to have started saving for college.
Journal Articles
- What Parents Seek in Relations With Early Childhood Family Helpers
What do parents look for in helping relations with early childhood professionals? In this article in the Early Childhood Education Journal the author discusses what practitioners can do to foster positive relationships with families.
- Defining Family Involvement in the Schools: New Voices, New Views
This special issue of the Negro Educational Review (2004, Vol. 55, No. 1, edited by A. C. Heggins and C. B. Jones) celebrates a 2003 conference on family involvement organized by the School of Education and Social Work at Livingstone College. Articles cover topics such as family involvement in school violence prevention and helping families foster a “positive black psychology” in children.
- Making Changes That Stay Made: School Reform and Community Involvement
In this article in The High School Journal (2004, Vol. 87, No. 4, pp. 10–24) Gilberto argues that school reform efforts have greater chances of success and sustainability when the community actively participates as an empowered change agent. The Mexican-American parent community's effort to reform the Salinas high school district is described as a case in point.
- Tensions, Contradictions, and Resistance: An Activist's Reflection of the Struggles of Latino Parents in the Public School System
In this article in The High School Journal (2004, Vol. 87, No. 4, pp. 25–35) Olivos draws on his own parent activist experience as well as other parent voices to examine tensions in the relationship between Latino parents and public schools. The author argues that Latino parents can resist, challenge, and even transform contradictory and oppressive school policies and practices.
Evaluation
-
The Evaluation Exchange: Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Quality
The new issue of The Evaluation Exchange focuses on assessing and improving the quality of out-of-school time and youth development programs. Articles cover innovative methodologies and new technology systems for assessing quality, strategies for recruitment and retention, and understanding and measuring participation.
-
Evaluation of the Technology Goes Home Program
Technology Goes Home (TGH) is an innovative program that prepares adults for employment and helps children improve academic performance through computer skills training in Boston neighborhoods and schools. The Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston presents early findings from its yearlong evaluation of the program.
-
Evaluating the National Outcomes: Program Outcomes for Parents and Families
The Parent/Family National Outcome Work Group is composed of Cooperative Extension professionals working on parent/family programs at several land grant universities. The group has developed evaluation tools, instruments, and resources based on two models: the National Extension Parent Education Model and the Characteristics of Strong, Healthy Families Model. This webpage describes the program outcomes for parents and families and has related research and resources.
Toolkit
-
Strengthening Families/Strengthening Schools Toolkit
This toolkit from the Annie E. Casey Foundation includes practical information to help schools partner with families and communities. Some questions it addresses are: How can our school improve relationships with families? How can our school connect with hard-to-reach families? How can our school develop and support parent leaders?
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