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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Approaches to Parental Involvement for Improving the Academic Performance of Elementary School Children in Grades K-6
This report summarizes the most dependable evidence on the effect of parental involvement intervention programs for improving the academic performance of elementary school-age children. The authors show that parent involvement has a positive and significant effect on children's overall academic performance.
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.
Driving Towards Family-Centered Policies and Practices: Parent Partnerships as Key Components of Student Success
Jenny Ocón, Executive Director of Parent Services Project (PSP) in San Rafael, California, describes how her work with PSP supports family engagement at schools and in the community.
Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework: Promoting Family Engagement and School Readiness from Prenatal to Age 8
This framework is a vital tool for early childhood education and care providers seeking to build effective family engagement strategies. It was developed by the Office of Head Start with the assistance of the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement for the Office of Head Start
The Effects of Peer Influence on Parents’ Reading Behavior at Home With Their Children
Parents care about what other parents are doing. Read how an intervention as simple as sharing with parents how often other families read with their children can motivate and increase family engagement.
Engaging Parents in an Urban Public High School: A Case Study of Boston Arts Academy
An urban public school successfully engages parents by offering a variety of school-based activities, a welcoming environment, and frequent communication between staff and parents.
Preparing Teachers to Engage Families Around Student Data
Maria C. Paredes is the Director of Community Education at Creighton School District in Arizona. Our October 2010 FINE Newsletter: Using Student Data to Engage Families, profiled Creighton District’s work with Academic Parent–Teacher teams. In this follow-up to the October article, Paredes describes how Creighton prepares teachers and parent liaisons to share student data with families through Academic Parent–Teacher Teams.
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.
We Were a "Hard-to-Reach" Family
Former Head Start parent, Nikia Parker, started out as a “hard-to-reach” parent but developed a strong, positive relationship with her family’s Early Head Start home visitor, which enabled her to not only effectively support her own children, but also take on advocacy and leadership roles within the larger Head Start community.
Adolescence: Are Parents Relevant to Students' High School Achievement and Post-Secondary Attainment?
Analysis of National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) data shows that parents' high educational expectations positively affect students' academic achievement in high school.
The Transition to Afterschool: One City’s Approach to Connecting Young Children and Their Families to Learning and Enrichment Opportunities
What steps can programs take to help families successfully transition to school and afterschool? How can families make informed choices about afterschool opportunities? What information do families need in this process? This video demonstrates how Cambridge, Massachusetts, is addressing these and related questions to help connect families to afterschool learning and enrichment opportunities prior to school entry.
New Offices, New Programs, New Interventions: A Look at New Developments in Early Childhood Education
In this FINE Newsletter Commentary, HFRP’s Christine Patton explores how new developments in early learning research, policy, and practice reflect a national “coming together” around the importance of early childhood experiences and their role in later school success.
The Transition to Afterschool: One City’s Approach to Connecting Young Children and Their Families to Learning and Enrichment Opportunities—Part Two
How can you create a resource to help families of young children successfully transition to afterschool? What questions should be addressed? This video looks at one city’s approach to helping connect families and their young children to afterschool enrichment opportunities.
Professional Development in Family Engagement: A Few Often-Overlooked Strategies for Success
In this resource, HFRP’s Christine Patton and the University of Pittsburgh’s Shannon Wanless discuss the importance of professional development (PD) in the area of family engagement, point out strategies for trainers and teachers to think about when designing and considering participating in trainings, and highlight the changing nature of PD in general.
Ready for Success: Creating Collaborative and Thoughtful Transitions into Kindergarten
Because early social performance and academic achievement are predictors of later school success, ensuring that children get off to a good start in kindergarten is critical. This brief, by Harvard Family Research Project's Christine Patton and Justina Wang, examines important elements of high-quality kindergarten transition strategies and profiles promising practices from six states that take an integrated and collaborative approach to helping kindergartners enter school ready for success.
Making Data Meaningful
In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Christine Patton explores how the conversations that people are having about education data have changed, and outlines key components of effective data-sharing practices.
Understanding Family Strengthening to Promote Youth Development
Dr. Geri Lynn Peak, a consultant and formerly the Managing Director of the Center for Applied Research and Technical Assistance, describes the evolution, practice, and potential assessment of a family strengthening approach to promote positive youth development.
Parents Come to Kindergarten: A Unique Junior Kindergarten Program for Four Year Olds and Their Families
A preschool parenting and readiness program in Canada results in higher school readiness among program children and families, as well as family readiness among teachers.
Transition as a Shared Responsibility: The Bridging Worlds Reader’s Theater
By coupling the Bridging Worlds case with a Reader’s Theater, we helped students examine the complexities involved in sharing responsibility for student learning during the transition to school.
Evaluating the National Replication of a Prevention Program for Youth and Their Families: Middle School Families and Schools Together
Laura Pinsoneault and James Sass from Alliance for Children and Families on their organization's replication and evaluation of the middle school adaptation of the Families and Schools Together (FAST) program.
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.
Using Behavior Change Theory to Communicate Effectively: The Case of Latino Parent Involvement
Anne Pollock (HGSE) and Julia Coffman and M. Elena Lopez (HFRP) reveal how to design communications that are more effective at changing behavior by keeping in mind the factors that influence behavior.
Faith-Based Organizing for School Improvement in the Texas Borderlands: A Case Study of the Alliance School Initiative
At two public schools in the Texas borderlands, a faith-based organization and a school–community partnership come together to improve parental engagement.
Early Head Start Research-Program Partnerships
An in-depth look at the challenges presented by the evaluation of the Early Head Start program - an evaluation which required the cooperation of multiple layers of research and program partners.
School-Family Relationship: Some Lessons From a Teacher Professional Development Program
Three studies explore how university–school research partnerships can provide teacher professional development to strengthen parent–teacher relations.