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.
Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success (Literacy in Learning Exchange, 2/19/2013)
February 19, 2013
This Literacy in Learning Exchange posting features Harvard Family Research Project’s recent publication, Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success, which looks at the advantages of partnerships among schools, families, and community organizations. The report reveals strong evidence that, when schools partner with families and community-based organizations, these partnerships for learning improve children’s development and school success. Authors Erin Harris and Shani Wilkes draw on the experiences of national organizations and a set of community schools that have built these learning partnerships, and examine seven key elements they find to be essential in building them:
- Shared vision of learning
- Shared leadership and governance
- Complementary partnerships
- Effective communications
- Regular and consistent sharing of information about youth
- Family engagement
- Collaborative staffing models.
To illustrate what effective partnerships look like in practice, the report highlights examples from Elev8, a community schools initiative in several locations across the country. It also provides a selected list of additional resources for those interested in learning more about partnerships for learning and the common challenges they have faced.
Read Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success, and the original HFRP report at Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success.