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.
October FINE Newsletter: New Family Involvement Research and Bibliography
October 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
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Why do parents become involved in their children's homework? In what ways are they involved in homework and how do these activities contribute to student learning? Researchers from the Family-School Partnership Lab at Vanderbilt University review the literature on parental involvement in homework to answer these important questions, and suggest ways in which schools can invite parents to be involved in homework.
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2004 Midyear Bibliography of Family Involvement Research
Our latest bibliography includes journal articles, books, and dissertations related to research in family involvement in education published between January and September 2004.
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Join the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory and Harvard Family Research Project on December 2nd for a symposium at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The symposium will focus on the impact of family, school, and community connections on student achievement and will feature presentations on diversity and culture, early literacy and school readiness, and the evaluation and assessment of parent involvement programs. Registration is $50; no fee for students.
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Research Digest: Math Teachers' Use of Class Websites to Support Parent Involvement
Based on interviews with math teachers on their use of class websites, this paper by Ellen Lunts explores how teachers can make better use of the Internet to share information with parents and to support parent involvement.
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Christine McWayne and Marissa Owsianik show positive social and academic outcomes for low-income, minority kindergarten children whose parents promote learning in the home and contact schools regularly.
Recent Reports
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Stories of Impact: Improving Parent Involvement Through Family Literacy in the Elementary School
Developed by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), the Toyota Families in Schools program targets children's academic achievement by implementing family literacy programs in elementary schools. This report highlights the successes of parents, children, and teachers from 45 Title I elementary schools who participated in Toyota Families in Schools. It examines how family literacy, by engaging parents in schools while supporting them to improve their own skills, impacts children's outcomes.
- Are L. A.'s Children Ready for School?
This exploration of school readiness focuses on how home literacy environment, parenting behavior, and social characteristics are associated with two aspects of school readiness: basic skills and behavior problems. It is available for purchase from the publisher at the link above.
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Are Schools Ready for Families? Case Studies in School-Family Relationships
Child abuse prevention programs are seeking new ways to connect with families in schools. This discussion paper from the National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (Friends) and Family Support America shares lessons learned by schools and community agencies about providing support and child abuse prevention services to families.
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Community-School Partnerships: The Living Legacy of Healthy Start
This What Works policy brief from the Foundation Consortium for California's Children and Youth explores lessons learned from the success of California's Healthy Start Initiative on developing strong partnerships with districts, cities, and counties.
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1.1 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2003
This brief from the National Center on Education Statistics discusses the reasons parents decide to homeschool their children. The brief uses data from the 2003 National Household Education Surveys to show that the number and percentage of homeschooled students has increased since 1999.
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Policies and practices that focus exclusively on raising test scores while ignoring the comprehensive health needs of students are likely to leave children behind. Based on data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, this report underscores the importance of risk factors to academic achievement. It is available for purchase from the publisher at the link above.
Recent Books and Journal Articles
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Keeping School: Letters to Families From Principals of Two Small Schools
Three charter school principals, well known for their innovative approaches to school reform, have selected the best of their communications to parents. The letters, essays, and commentaries in this collection focus on the essential elements of effective education: a classic core curriculum, flexible scheduling, small class size, and personalized teaching.
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Children of Immigrant Families
The most recent issue of The Future of Children examines critical issues confronting immigrant children at different developmental stages and the social and economic challenges their families face.
Toolkit
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Successful Kindergarten Transition: Your Guide to Connecting Children, Families, and Schools
This how-to handbook for preschool and kindergarten teachers, administrators, and family support specialists describes field-tested methods to help schools and programs make successful kindergarten transitions. Readers will learn how to anticipate barriers and keep families involved, and how to conduct ongoing assessment and evaluation. Available for purchase from the publisher at the link above.
Evaluation
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Parents and caregivers of low-income children who participated in an early literacy program sponsored by the public library significantly improved their literacy behaviors with children and increased their use of public libraries.
Websites to Watch
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Every Person Influences Children (EPIC)
EPIC's programs and workshops assist schools, teachers, and parents in involving parents in the education of their children and in cultivating strong character development among students. EPIC offers trainings to schools in topics such as parents as advocates, parent leadership, home-school partnerships, and parent involvement. A resource guide, Creating Home/School Partnerships & Parent Involvement, is available for purchase.
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The KidsHealth website provides accurate and easy-to-understand information on health issues for children and their families, with separate, age-appropriate areas for kids, teens, and parents. The parents' page includes many brief articles on issues relating to emotion and behavior, growth and development, and positive parenting.
Events
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The Fathers Collaborative of the Office of Child Development at the University of Pittsburgh will provide a training for professional staff and father-leaders, November 4–5, 2004, in Pittsburgh. The training will address the important role that fathers play in their children's development and offer evidence-based best practices for recruiting, engaging, and sustaining fathers' involvement in programming. The registration deadline is October 22.
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Public Education Network 2004 Annual Conference: Schools & Community: Public Education in a Democratic Society
This year's annual conference will explore the role of public schools as models of community, as centers of community, as community builders, and as model public institutions. The conference will be held November 13–16 in Washington, DC. The registration deadline is October 15th.
Other Resources From Harvard Family Research Project
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Two New Out-of-School Time Publications
HFRP has recently published two new publications on evaluating out-of-school time (OST) programs. The first, Detangling Data Collection: Methods for Gathering Data is the latest in our Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots series. It describes the common data collection methods used by current OST programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes. The second publication, Promoting Quality Through Professional Development: A Framework for Evaluation, is a research brief that examines OST professional development efforts and offers a framework for their evaluation. It is the newest in our Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation series.
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 - Family Involvement Network of Educators