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
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COMPLEMENTARY LEARNING CONNECTIONS
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Teaching Cases on Family Engagement: Early Learning (Ages 0–8)
HFRP's teaching cases involve real world situations and consider the perspectives of various stakeholders, including early childhood program and elementary school staff, parents, children, and community members. This handout provides a detailed list of our teaching cases on family involvement, focusing on the earlier years of a child's learning and development.
The Power of Community Organizing: Creating Parent Advocates to Work Toward Educational Change
Zakiyah Ansari, a parent and community organizer with the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) in New York City, shares how CEJ empowers parents and community members to advocate for education reform at the local, state, and federal levels.
Drawing on Parents’ Strengths: The Role of Districts and Schools in Empowering Families to be Effective Partners in Learning
Trise Moore, Family Partnership Advocate for Federal Way Public Schools Washington state, discusses her work in the district’s Family Partnership Office to promote strong partnerships among parents and district- and school-level staff.
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.
Making the Case for Family–School–Community Partnerships: Linking Partnerships with Student Achievement
Steve Sheldon, Research Scientist with the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University and Director of Research with the National Network of Partnership Schools, addresses the need for a stronger evidence base to support the role of school–family–community partnerships in education reform.
Philanthropy for Innovation: Promoting Family Engagement through Strategic Funding and Program Development
Helen Westmoreland, Director of Program Quality for the Flamboyan Foundation—a private family foundation focused on improving educational outcomes for children in Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico—discusses how foundations and funders can support the development of effective family engagement practices in all schools.
Coming Full Circle: Drawing On Personal Experiences to Create a Vision for System-Wide Change
Mishaela Durán, Interim Executive Director of the National PTA, sets the stage for this special issue about the emerging leaders in our field by getting at the heart of why family and community and engagement is so important in education: giving students the opportunity to succeed.
Book Review: Inviting Families into the Classroom: Learning from a Life in Teaching
This book by Lynne Yermanock Strieb provides readers with insights on family engagement from the perspective of someone with 31 years of experience teaching kindergarten and first and second grade in Philadelphia public schools. While Inviting Families into the Classroom discusses parent–teacher relationships more broadly, this book review focuses on its valuable lessons on building relationships with families whose children are transitioning into elementary school.
Voices from the Field: How Can Elementary Teachers Collaborate More Effectively with Parents to Support Literacy Learning?
In this FINE Newsletter Voices from the Field article, Carol St. George, EdD, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester and Title I Family Involvement Coordinator for the Greece Central School District in New York, discusses her use of the Collegial Circle, a professional development activity that engages teachers with parents.
Book Review: The Power of Family–School Partnering
Beth Schueler reviews the new book, The Power of Family–School Partnering: A Practical Guide for School Mental Health Professionals and Educators (FSP), a user-friendly handbook for developing and implementing a sustainable and effective Family–School Partnering strategy.
Successful Family Engagement in the Classroom: What teachers need to know and be able to do to engage families in raising student achievement
HFRP invited the Flamboyan Foundation—a private foundation focused on improving educational outcomes for children in Washington, DC and Puerto Rico—to share its classroom family engagement rubric with FINE. This rubric, and accompanying article, provides districts, school leaders, and teachers with a clear picture of what effective family engagement looks like in the classroom through concrete descriptions of how teachers demonstrate strong family engagement through their conversations and daily practice.
Update: New Skills for New Schools
Since the 1997 publication of New Skills for New Schools by HFRP, the education reform landscape has changed, making it necessary to align teacher preparation and professional learning for family engagement with the goals of a twenty-first century education. Harvard Family Research Project is working to gather information about promising teacher education practices to prepare teachers to partner with families for student success. A preview of these practices—to be published in our forthcoming policy brief—is summarized in this update.
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.
Ongoing Child Assessment and Family Engagement: New Opportunities to Engage Families in Children’s Learning and Development
This paper by the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement, a new center formed by HFRP and Brazelton Center at Children's Hospital Boston and other partners for the Office of Head Start, focuses on child assessment data as a tool for parent and family engagement in the early childhood arena. It is the first in a series that will help early childhood care and education programs identify ways that they can share information in order to strengthen partnerships and work toward common goals.
Breaking New Ground: Data Systems Transform Family Engagement in Education
HFRP and the National PTA® have teamed up for the second issue in our series of ground-breaking policy briefs. Breaking New Ground cites six case studies from across the country that reveal innovative efforts by early childhood programs and school districts to use student data systems to improve family engagement. Each profile illustrates a segment of a data pathway beginning in early childhood and continuing through students' academic careers. The brief also includes a set of policy recommendations to help support the current trends in education that focus on twenty-first century learning and the vital role of technology.
Beyond Random Acts: Family, School, and Community Engagement as an Integral Part of Education Reform
This paper, authored by Harvard Family Research Project, served as the foundation for panelists’ discussions at the National Policy Forum for Family, School, and Community Engagement. Beyond Random Acts provides a research-based framing of family engagement; examines the policy levers that can drive change in promoting systemic family, school, and community engagement; and focuses on data systems as a powerful tool to engage families for twenty-first century student learning. Because education reform will succeed only when all students are prepared for the demands of the twenty-first century, the paper also examines the role of families in transforming low-performing schools.
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.
Valuing Families as Partners
Elena Lopez explores the benefits of creating strong partnerships between early childhood programs and families.
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.
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.
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.
Complementary Learning Connections With Out-of-School Time Programs in Nebraska
When families, schools, and out-of-school supports work together, children are more likely to succeed. Lisa St. Clair writes about how the Nebraska State Parental Information and Resource Center is using a complementary learning approach to link family support programs with schools, early childhood programs, and out-of-school time programs.
Featured Teaching Case: After School for Cindy
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 FINE newsletter, we feature After School for Cindy, which explores the roles that family members, school staff, and community organizations play in one child’s out-of-school time and demonstrates the importance of family engagement across learning contexts.
A Day in the Life: Family Engagement in Citizen Schools
Emily Schneider-Krzys, the Deputy Program Director of Citizen Schools in Texas, explains how the Citizen Schools program’s focus on creating networks, building intentional relationships, and establishing consistent communication helps to engage families and support student learning.
Effective Home-School Communication
Not all home–school communication succeeds in supporting student learning. In this article, Duke University's JoBeth Allen offers tips for effective communication between schools and families that can help children to learn and grow.