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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All Publications & Resources WORKING WITH TEACHERS AND FAMILIES DEVELOPMENT PERIODS |
COMPLEMENTARY LEARNING CONNECTIONS
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How Busy Parents Can Help Their Children Learn and Develop
Spanish Translation Available. No matter how busy parents are, there are things they can do to help their children. Parents of first- and second-graders in the School Transition Study research project have discovered creative ways to stay involved in their children's learning and development. Researchers conducting the survey learned important and useful tips to share with busy parents everywhere.
Tim Kelly: A School Responds to a Family in Need
Tim Kelly, a first grade student, comes to school hungry, dirty, emotionally needy, and academically unprepared. His teacher believes his lack of care at home is contributing to his poor school performance. How can a teacher individualize parent involvement?
Generating Family-School Partnerships Through Social Marketing
The outgrowth of a meeting of six national organizations promoting family-school partnerships, this article discusses methods to enhance family involvement through social marketing. By arguing that schools should view parents as “customers,” teachers and administrators can reach out to parents in effective and successful ways.
Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies: Training Child Care Providers to Support Families
Presents a framework of family-centered training.
Erik Greer
Erik's first grade teacher is concerned about his intentional aggression towards other children and communicates regularly with Erik's mother about it. Subtle differences in beliefs between Erik's mother and teacher leave both feeling unsatisfied in their attempts to help Erik. How can the two build a partnership to change Erik's behavior?
Children and Youth
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is devoted to the evaluation of youth programs that support positive youth development. Topics include evaluating strength-based approaches to youth development, youth participation in evaluation, lessons learned from the international community on evaluating youth programs, and foundation grantmaking for children and youth.
Family-Centered Child Care
This report provides a training framework to support families through child care programs. It describes six areas of practice through which providers can develop the knowledge and skills to partner with families. The report contains profiles of family-centered programs and examines how they have applied family support principles in their practice.
Helping Parents Communicate Better With Schools
Spanish Translation Available. Good communication between parents and teachers has many benefits. This Early Childhood Digest shares information on how to establish good parent-teacher communication.
Latino Families: Getting Involved in Your Children's Education
Spanish Translation Available. This Early Childhood Digest provides tips on how families can support their children in childcare, preschool, Head Start, and kindergarten.
Beyond the Parent-Teacher Conference: Diverse Patterns of Home-School Communication
Discussions about home-school communication generally focus on formal, scheduled school activities offered to all parents, such as parent-teacher conferences or back-to-school nights. In contrast, this paper examines a variety of alternative communication patterns that are important mechanisms for parents and teachers to gain information and make decisions about children.
New Strategies in Foundation Grantmaking for Children and Youth
This report examines trends in foundation grantmaking for children and youth among 19 foundations. The foundations include most of the largest and wealthiest and those whose grantmaking heavily focuses on children and youth. Survey results indicate that, because the problems of youth are interconnected and require comprehensive solutions, foundations are shifting their grantmaking strategies. Several are concentrating more resources on long-term, place-based community strategies designed to improve outcomes for children and youth.
Promising Practices for Family Involvement
This ethnographic study examined 11 elementary principals who built relationships with low-income parents with limited resources . Effective principals set goals, expand services to children and families, provide parenting education, negotiate and celebrate cultural differences, build strong relationships, and support teachers. In Principal, 78(3), 16–19. (Also available through the ERIC Database, ERIC number EJ579351.)
Parent-Provider Partnerships
This paper discusses ways of working with children and families from diverse backgrounds and highlights some of the challenging issues raised by working with families having differing values, cultural norms, and experiences.
Eight Themes in Comprehensive Community Development: An Annotated Bibliography
This review of current literature on community development is a resource for people hoping to gain insight into the common ground and potential for collaboration that exist between family support and community development initiatives. A brief introduction to the bibliography explains what the eight themes are, why they are important, and what special challenges are raised for community development practitioners.
Transforming Training
This paper defines the characteristics of family support in the child care context, highlights research showing the need for provider training to raise program quality, and discusses five vital topics for training child care providers in family support. The author argues for the need to develop one cohesive training system for providers.
Learning From Starting Points
This report analyzes experiences of grantees involved in Carnegie Corporation's Starting Points grant program to encourage states and cities to engage in practices to improve children's well-being. This work examines these grantees' experiences implementing key components of a learning system and presents the overall lessons for other localities intent on using information to improve outcomes.
Family Resource Centers: Where School Readiness Happens
Family resource centers are places where you can get information on raising and educating your child. This issue of the Early Childhood Digest describes family resource centers and how they can help you get your child ready for school.
The Parent Services Project
The Parent Services Project (PSP), a nationally recognized child care training program, is based on the belief that caring for children requires caring for families, and that family support strengthens both parents and the community. This paper outlines the history of PSP and summarizes its main teaching points and training methodology.
A Mixed Method Approach to Understanding Family-School Communication
This paper presents the initial findings from an ethnographic case study, focusing on the mixed-method research strategy used in the MacArthur Comprehensive Child Development Project Follow-up Study. The aim of the study was to expand the understanding of children's developmental trajectories as they traverse the elementary school years. This paper presents three case study vignettes of children in the second grade, each highlighting a different aspect of family-school communication from the perspective of the children's parents, and highlights the methodological strengths of ethnography. The third vignette uncovered the complexity and contradictions and race, racism, and informal communication between home and child for one African-American child. (Available in ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED422111)
Resource Guide for Family-Centered Child Care
This guide offers ideas and resources for implementing family support principles in child care, and an annotated bibliography of up-to-date publications and training materials that child care providers can use to improve their efforts to support families.
Family Involvement in Early Childhood Programs: How to Choose the Right Program for Your Child
What is family involvement and how can families choose early childhood programs that encourage it? This issue of Early Childhood Digest looks at these questions, and provides information on how to choose an early childhood program that encourages family involvement.
Credentialing Caregivers
This paper describes why family support is essential, given current social and economic trends, and stresses the need to bridge child care and family support. The author underscores the need for accessible family support training curricula that can be adapted to audiences of child care providers.
Families and Teachers as Partners
This digest provides suggestions on how families and teachers can work together in schools to provide enriching experiences for children.
Home/School/Community Partnerships
Class sessions address system-level issues in working with children and their families. Attention is given to strategies and tactics used by school districts, community groups, and private sector organizations to support academic, health, and social goals for children and their families.