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.
Accomplished Teachers and Their Interactions With Parents: A Comparative Analysis of Strategies and Techniques
This study found that teachers with National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification have more positive attitudes, are more tenacious in their approaches, and have more strategies for engaging families than noncertified teachers.
The Welfare-to-Work Transition and Parent Involvement in Education: A Southern Case Study
This exploratory case study examines whether the transition from welfare to work influences parental involvement in elementary school education.
Reading, Writing, and Reform in the Bronx: Lessons for Community Engagement in Schools
Five community-based education organizing groups use various strategies to build trust and commitment among parents and teachers.
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.
The Effects of Comprehensive Parent Engagement on Student Learning Outcomes
This study examined the school-level effects on tested student achievement in 129 high poverty elementary schools that implemented a common set of comprehensive parent-engagement strategies over a 2-year period.
Do Educational Programs Increase Parents' Practices at Home?: Factors Influencing Latino Parent Involvement
Latino parents become more involved in their children's education when they understand the school system and know how to help their children.
Preparing Teachers to Engage Parents
This research report reviews parent involvement modules created for preservice teachers focusing on parent-teacher communication and collaborating with community. The online, problem-based modules were designed by the North Texas Partnership for Parent Engagement.
The Promotive Effects of Family Educational Involvement for Low-Income Children
Article in the Journal of School Psychology, 42(6), 445–460. In this article the authors longitudinally examined associations between family involvement, children's feelings about literacy, and children's literacy achievement from kindergarten through fifth grade. Children's feelings about literacy mediated associations between family educational involvement and literacy achievement. Also, family involvement was more positively associated with literacy outcomes for children whose mothers were less educated compared with children whose mothers were more educated.
Parent Involvement and the Social and Academic Competencies of Urban Kindergarten Children
This study shows positive social and academic outcomes for low-income, minority kindergarten children whose parents promote learning in the home and contact schools regularly.
Parental Involvement in Homework: A Review of Current Research and Its Implications for Teachers, After School Program Staff, and Parent Leaders
Parents often become involved in their children's education through homework. In 2001 research on parental involvement in children's homework was conducted (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). The review focused on understanding why parents become involved in their children's homework, what strategies they employ, and how involvement contributes to student learning. In this paper, findings from the 2001 review suggest several ways in which schools can invite parents' involvement in homework.
Math Teachers' Use of Class Websites to Support Parent Involvement
Interviews with 84 math teachers about the use of their class websites suggest that sites could be used more effectively to share information with parents and to support parent involvement.
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.
Working It Out: The Chronicle of a Mixed-Method Analysis
Chapter in Discovering Successful Pathways in Children's Development: Mixed Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life. Edited by Thomas S. Weisner. Published by University of Chicago Press. This chapter chronicles a mixed-method analysis of family involvement in children's learning, drawing observations about the process and added value of combining methods.
The Role of the Family in the Educational Experiences of Second-Generation Chinese Americans
Chinese-American college students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds describe the role of their families in their paths to college.
African-American and Chinese-American Parent Involvement: The Importance of Race, Class, and Culture
African-American and Chinese-American parents use alternative forms of social capital to support their children's education.
Parents Write Their Worlds: A Parent Involvement Program Bridging Urban Schools and Families
A participatory research project examines a school-based writing workshop in which parents write stories for a literary magazine that is circulated in the school and community.
Engaging With Families in Out-of-School Time Learning
This Snapshot provides an overview of how researchers are evaluating out-of-school time programs’ engagement with families.
Social Capital
This issue of the FINE Forum features some examples families, schools, and communities coming together to enrich children's learning and social development opportunities.
Story Time: Mothers' Reading Practices in Japan and the U.S.
A comparison between American and Japanese mothers' home reading practices with their preschool children enriches our understanding of cross-cultural differences.
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.
Bridging Multiple Worlds: Building Pathways From Childhood to College
Students' pathways through school can be seen as moving through an academic pipeline to adulthood. The Bridging Multiple Worlds model focuses on how diverse youth, beginning in their middle childhood years, navigate across their worlds of families, peers, schools, and communities as they move along their pathways to college, careers, and family roles in adulthood.
Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to Online Resources on Family Involvement
This comprehensive resource guide compiles a wealth of information about family involvement from over 100 national organizations. It contains Web links to recent (published in and after 2000) research, information, and tools.
Transforming Schools Through Community Organizing: A Research Review
This paper reviews the literature on community organizing. It examines how community organizing differs from traditional parent involvement activities, outlines the characteristic strategies used to engage parents in organizing efforts, and describes the outcomes of these efforts.
Making It Work: Low-Income Working Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Education
Article in the American Educational Research Journal , Vol. 40 , No. 4, December 2003, pp. 879–901.
Using a mixed method analysis, this article looks at the relation between employment and family involvement in children's elementary education for low-income women, and finds that work is both obstacle to and opportunity for family involvement. This article may be downloaded only. It may not be copied or used for any purpose other than scholarship.
Parent Involvement and Early Literacy
Parents’ involvement at school is related to children’s higher literacy, particularly for those from socially or economically disadvantaged families.