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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.
December 11, 2014 A Strong Start for Family Engagement in MassachusettsNathan Driskell |
FINE Newsletter, Volume VI, Issue 5
Issue Topic: The Role of Organizations in Anywhere, Anytime Learning
HFRP Research & Resources
Massachusetts has been a long-time leader in high-quality family engagement, and with its Race to the Top—Early Challenge award in 2011, the state has accelerated and enhanced its efforts. Unlike other states that use Race to the Top funding to pilot and evaluate a range of new programs, Massachusetts has leveraged the federal dollars to scale-up and enhance its many existing high-quality family engagement initiatives. The source of Massachusetts’s success, in part, has been its emphasis on bringing together a variety of organizations that support young children’s learning—including schools, early childhood programs, museums, libraries, and even a television station and the city’s transportation system—to develop a continuum of services for families.
In this profile (PDF), Nathan Driskell explores the implementation of Massachusetts’s Race to the Top application, known as the Massachusetts Early Learning Plan, and its key objectives, which include supporting organizations that work directly with families, training professionals locally and statewide in family engagement, and promoting statewide public awareness campaigns. The profile highlights the collaborative planning process and then examines the efforts to build a sustainable infrastructure by carrying out the application’s objectives. It also describes evaluation and accountability processes and ends with reflections about future directions. This profile is part of Harvard Family Research Project’s policy work highlighting state leadership in advancing family engagement anywhere, anytime children learn.
© 2016 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College
Published by Harvard Family Research Project