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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Learning From Parents Through Reflective Evaluation Practice
David Scheie, See Moua, and Pang Lee summarize lessons learned by listening to parents’ spontaneous stories during a parent survey interview.
Ongoing Evaluations of Programs in Parent Leadership and Family Involvement
Kelly Faughnan and Cassandra Wolos of HFRP present two listings of upcoming program evaluations, the first in parent leadership and organizing, the second in family involvement in education.
Perspectives on Family Involvement
Nancy Hill, Amy Baker, and Kevin Marjoribanks discuss the present state and future direction of family involvement research and evaluation, from the perspectives of developmental psychology, evaluation, and education, respectively.
From the Director's Desk
An introduction to the issue on Evaluating Family Involvement Programs by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.
Co-Constructing Family Involvement
M. Elena Lopez, Holly Kreider, and Margaret Caspe from HFRP discuss the co-construction of home-school partnerships to support children’s learning and development.
Assessing the Effects of Parent Involvement Interventions on Elementary School Student Achievement
Herbert Turner, Chad Nye, and Jamie Schwartz explain the Campbell Collaboration’s application of its systematic review process to parent involvement interventions.
Improving Parental Involvement: Evaluating Treatment Effects in the Fast Track Program
Robert Nix, research associate at Pennsylvania State University, describes how a rigorous evaluation of a complex behavior problems preventive intervention analyzes its school-home component.
Blending Evaluation Traditions: The Talent Development Model
Veronica Thomas and Velma LaPoint describe the Talent Development approach to evaluating an urban family-school-community partnership program.
A Conversation With Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn reflects on the breakthrough findings and new directions for research, evaluation, and practice in family-focused interventions.
Promoting Quality Outcome Measurement: A Home-Visitation Case
Audrey Laszewski, project director of the Early Years Home Visitation Outcomes Project of Wisconsin, describes how a stakeholder collaboration resulted in a common outcome measurement process.
Rethinking the Evaluation of Family Strengthening Strategies: Beyond Traditional Program Evaluation Models
Charles Bruner of the Child and Family Policy Center outlines three factors of good family strengthening programs that evaluators are not adequately measuring in their evaluations.
Early Head Start: Further Lessons
Catherine Ayoub and Barbara Pan, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describe their work collecting and analyzing longitudinal data to supplement national findings from the Early Head Start study.
New & Noteworthy
A list of organizations and initiatives related to the issue's theme of Reflecting on the Past and Future of Evaluation.
Beyond Input: Achieving Authentic Participation in School Reform
M. Elena Lopez and Holly Kreider of HFRP present a framework of authentic parent participation in school reform and its implications for evaluation.
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.
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.
Using Information Architecture to Improve Communication
Erin Harris from Harvard Family Research Project with Suzanne Muchin, CEO of Civitas, illustrate the design concept “information architecture” for displaying complex information clearly and simply.
When Parents Assess Schools
M. Elena Lopez, from Harvard Family Research Project, discusses the role that data plays in helping parents assess, and then work to change, the performance of their children’s schools.
Participatory Action Research: Building Community Capacity Through Collaboration, Education, and Action
Priscilla Little, from Harvard Family Research Project, describes the implementation of the Milwaukee Participatory Action Research project and how it improved the evaluation and advocacy skills of all its participants.
Lessons From a Partnership Model Project
Kathe Johnson shares her experience from her work with the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative, outlining four lessons she learned from this project, which connects professional academic and low-income women.
From Health Consumers to Health Consumer Researchers
A grassroots network of families of children with special health care needs shares the lessons they learned about conducting research to improve the health care for their children.
Learning From Families
M. Elena Lopez, from Harvard Family Research Project, discusses expanding the role of family support to include supporting families’ using information to improve their communities.
Evaluating Effect Sizes in the Policy Arena
Kathleen McCartney and Eric Dearing from the Harvard Graduate School of Education provide an overview on effect size and what it reveals about the effectiveness of family support programs.
How Can We Strengthen Family Support Research and Evaluation?
Carl Dunst, Co-Director of the Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, urges getting beyond the question of “what works” toward a more detailed scrutiny of the relationship among family support principles, program practice, and family outcomes.
Connecting Good Research and Ideas with Policymaking
Three experts in conducting Family Impact Seminars share their techniques for bringing research about families to legislators in a way that not only grabs their attention, but also supports policy change.