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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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WORKING WITH TEACHERS AND FAMILIES DEVELOPMENT PERIODS
COMPLEMENTARY LEARNING CONNECTIONS

Breaking New Ground: Data Systems Transform Family Engagement in Education

In this issue’s commentary, Heather Weiss and M. Elena Lopez from Harvard Family Research Project and Deborah Stark, Commissioner of First 5, Alameda County revisit the new definition of family engagement—as a shared responsibility, across multiple settings, from cradle to career—as applied to student data use. They discuss how data can effectively bring families, teachers, and administrators to the table, and engage everyone around student learning and performance.

Harvard Family Research Project (October 2010) Research Report

Logged In: Using Technology to Engage Families in Children’s Education

Based on research of promising practices in school districts and communities, Harvard Family Research Project has identified a range of technological innovations that have the potential to boost key dimensions of family engagement: positive parent–child interactions, home–school communication, and parent responsibility for a child’s learning.

Harvard Family Research Project (October 2010) Research Report

ARIS Parent Link: Five Lessons in Linking Families to Student Data Systems

In this Voices from the Field article, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the New York City Department of Education's Deputy Chancellor in the Division of Performance & Accountability, discusses five lessons gleaned from the ARIS Parent Link data system, one of the many tools NYC schools employ to help educators and families evaluate student learning and support student achievement. 

Shael Polakow-Suransky (October 2010) Research Report

“For the first time I understand what it takes for my own child to graduate”: Engaging Immigrant Families around Data

D’Lisa Crain, Grant Administrator for the Nevada State Parent Information & Resource Center and Parent Involvement Coordinator for the Washoe County School District, talks about using case studies to help immigrant families better understand data as well as training parents to use an online data tool to track student learning and attendance. 

D’Lisa Crain (October 2010) Research Report

Academic Parent–Teacher Teams: Reorganizing Parent–Teacher Conferences Around Data

Maria C. Paredes, Director of Community Education at Creighton School District in Arizona, discusses one of the district’s family engagement strategies that was developed—in part—from data she collected demonstrating that parents were more interested in attending academically-oriented activities than other types of events such as potlucks or family-fun nights. 

Maria C. Paredes (October 2010) Research Report

Parent–Teacher Conference Tip Sheets (Hojas de Consejos Para Las Reuniones de Padres y Maestros)

Even with technological advances that allow parents to track their child’s academic progress remotely, and more transparency in student data (such as test scores and attendance rates), face-to-face interaction between parents and teachers is still the cornerstone of school family engagement efforts. These newly revised tip sheets provide key strategies for both parents and teachers to walk into conferences informed and prepared, in order to ensure the most successful outcomes. A tip sheet aimed at school principals also outlines how school administrators can support parents and teachers to that end. Now available in Spanish, this tool is a powerful resource for families and educators alike.

Harvard Family Research Project (October 2010) Research Report

Family Engagement for High School Success: Final Grant Report to AT&T

As part of our evaluation work with United Way Worldwide on the Family Engagement for High School Success Initiative, HFRP worked with 15 local United Way chapters and their surrounding communities to develop comprehensive family engagement strategies through partnerships with schools, students and their families, and the local community, in support of boosting high school graduation rates and academic achievement. This grant report details the planning process with the 15 grantees and the lessons learned during the process.

Harvard Family Research Project (September 2010) Research Report

New Visions for Public Schools: Using Data to Engage Families

Barbara Taveras and Caissa Douwes from New Visions for Public Schools and Karen Johnson from BASE High School in New York City share how high schools in New York City have begun to engage families in students’ academic success and college readiness by supporting parents in understanding achievement data. This case study makes clear that supporting parents in grasping and utilizing this information is a shared responsibility among schools, families, and students.

Barbara Taveras , Caissa Douwes, Karen Johnson, with Diana Lee and Margaret Caspe (May 2010) Research Report

Family Engagement as a Systemic, Sustained, and Integrated Strategy to Promote Student Achievement

This paper offers an expanded definition of family engagement based on research about children’s learning and the relationships among families, schools, and communities in support of such learning. The topics presented in this paper were originally introduced as commentaries in the August 2009, November 2009, and April 2010 issues of the F.I.N.E. Newsletter.

Harvard Family Research Project (April 2010) Research Report

Current Issue - Scaling Impact

This issue of The Evaluation Exchange explores the promising practices and challenges associated with taking an enterprise to scale, along with the role that evaluation can and should play in that process. It is the second in our “hard-to-measure” series, which we inaugurated with our Spring 2007 issue on evaluating advocacy.

Evaluation Exchange Issue

Lessons from Evaluators’ Experiences with Scale

Heidi Rosenberg of HFRP and Helen Westmoreland of the Flamboyan Foundation spoke with three evaluators, who share lessons from their experiences in evaluating programs as they went to scale, to discover how evaluation can inform and assess scaling efforts.

Heidi Rosenberg , Helen Westmoreland (Spring 2010) Evaluation Exchange Article

Taking Leadership, Innovating Change: Profiles in Family, School, and Community Engagement

This new report from the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group contains twelve examples of leading innovations in family engagement as an integral and effective strategy in systemic education reform.

National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group (March 2010) Research Report

Reframing Family Involvement in Education: Supporting Families to Support Educational Equity

This research review, part of the Equity Matters research initiative at the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, argues that family involvement in education is a powerful but neglected tool to support children’s learning and development.  Disadvantaged children are both more likely to benefit from increased family involvement and to come from families who face the greatest barriers to such involvement.  To reframe public understanding of the benefits of family involvement in children’s education, this paper lays out a research-based definition and more equitable approach to family involvement and positions it as a key cross-cutting component of broader comprehensive or complementary learning systems.

Heather B. Weiss , Suzanne M. Bouffard, Beatrice L. Bridglall, Edmund W. Gordon (December 2009) Research Report

Commentary from the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group on the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund

The National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a collaborative of leaders in the family engagement field including Harvard Family Research Project’s (HFRP) Heather Weiss, submitted recommendations for the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund’s proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria.The National Working Group’s recommendations provide a framework for the integration of family involvement into how potential recipients of i3 funds are assessed and selected, as well as how initiatives are evaluated.

National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group (January 19, 2010) Research Report

Commentary from Harvard Family Research Project on the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund

HFRP submitted recommendations to the National Register Notice regarding the i3 fund’s proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria. The recommendation included an endorsement of the comments submitted by the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a collaborative of leaders in the family engagement field including HFRP’s Heather Weiss, and emphasized the need to direct development and validation grant funding toward promising family and community engagement initiatives, isolate and recognize the added value of parental involvement in interventions, and take a nuanced view of effect size when selecting innovations for funding.

Harvard Family Research Project (January 19, 2010) Research Report

Preparing Educators to Engage Families: Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework, Second Edition

This book supports teacher training and professional development in the area of family engagement. This volume helps prepare teachers and other professionals to partner with the families of elementary school children for student success and positive development. This second edition pairs child development theory with research-based teaching cases that reflect critical dilemmas in family–school–community relations, especially among families for whom poverty and cultural differences are daily realities.

Heather B. Weiss , Holly Kreider, M. Elena Lopez, Celina Chatman-Nelson (January 2010) Research Report

Valuing Families as Partners

Elena Lopez explores the benefits of creating strong partnerships between early childhood programs and families.

M. Elena Lopez (January 2010) Research Report

Resource Guide for Family Engagement in Education at the High School Level

A sampling of research reports, best practices, and tools to guide you in conceptualizing and creating effective family engagement strategies for high school students.

Harvard Family Research Project (December 7, 2009) Bibliography

Parent-Teacher Conference Tip Sheets for Principals, Teachers, and Parents

Parent–teacher conferences are an important component of ongoing home–school communication and family involvement in children's education. This set of tip sheets—for principals, teachers, and parents—can help ensure that conferences achieve their maximum potential.

Harvard Family Research Project (January 2009) Tool for Practice

Family Engagement: A Shared Responsibility

Harvard Family Research Project’s M. Elena Lopez, Heidi Rosenberg, and Helen Westmoreland discuss how families, schools, and communities can create a shared responsibility for children’s learning and academic success. The three dimensions of this approach include creating opportunities for family engagement, building co-constructed roles that outline families’ and schools’ responsibilities, and learning about effective ways to engage families in children’s learning.

Heidi Rosenberg , M. Elena Lopez, Helen Westmoreland (November 2009) Research Report

Family Engagement Policy Resources

We've added a section to our website to inform stakeholders of our policy-related work in family engagement. This work seeks to promote the broader definition of family engagement that stresses shared responsibility and cross-context learning within a cradle-to-career approach to education. Visit our new policy page for more details, including our  comments in the Federal Register regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund competitive grants program.

Harvard Family Research Project (November 2009) Research Report

Featured Teaching Case: Suspension at Aurora Middle School

Harvard Family Research Project’s Teaching Cases support teacher training and professional development by highlighting challenges that schools, families, and communities may encounter in supporting children’s learning. In this month’s newsletter, we feature Suspension at Aurora Middle School, which highlights the shared responsibility of community groups to resolve home-school difficulties.

Harvard Family Research Project (November 2009) Research Report

Co-Constructing Family Engagement Roles in Federal Way, Washington

Through open communication and a mutual investment in solving a problem, one parent, school principal, and district-level family advocate helped bring about positive change in a Federal Way, Washington, middle school. Kelley O’Carroll and Angela Griffin write about the shared responsibility of co-constructing an effective solution and how this effort inspired a parent to advocate for the entire student body, not just her own child.

Kelley O'Carrol , Angela Griffin (November 2009) Research Report

Family Involvement News: November 2009

We at Harvard Family Research Project are committed to keeping you up-to-date on what's new in family involvement.  View our list of links to upcoming and current reports, articles, events, and funding opportunities in the family involvement field.

Harvard Family Research Project (November 2009) Research Report

How to Develop a Logic Model for Districtwide Family Engagement Strategies

How to Develop a Logic Model for Districtwide Family Engagement Strategies, a tool from Harvard Family Research Project, guides school districts to create a logic model that can aid in planning, implementing, assessing, and communicating about their systemic family engagement efforts.

Helen Westmoreland , M. Elena Lopez, Heidi Rosenberg (November 2009) Tool for Evaluation

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