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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.

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Bridging Worlds pub coverAs we begin the New Year, we take a fresh look at our definition of family engagement: it is a shared responsibility of families, schools, and communities, and is a continuous process that takes place from birth to young adulthood and crosses multiple learning settings, including the home and community. Our past experience helping organizations apply the definition has taught us that change comes about when communities put manageable ideas into action. In the coming year, we will be demonstrating this definition as it relates to the transition to school (K-3). Because family engagement starts to drop off during this transition, and, given that continuous family engagement is related to positive student outcomes in the elementary grades, we believe that the transition is a critical time during which to strengthen communities' and families' understanding of family engagement. We explore some of the most crucial aspects of this important transition process in an exciting new teaching case, Bridging Worlds: Family Engagement in the Transition to Kindergarten.

What are the connections and missed connections in the transition process? How do adults' beliefs and assumptions about their roles impact a young child's learning and development? We capture these and other questions in Bridging Worlds: Family Engagement in the Transition to Kindergarten, by Margaret Caspe. Accompanying the case are commentaries by Jamilah Jor'dan, Assistant Professor at Chicago State University, Amy Dombro, Writer and Consultant, and Wanda Grant of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, who offer their expert insights into Maya's situation. Discussion questions and recommended readings are also included, and instructor notes will follow.  Read more... 

View all publications in the Family Engagement Teaching Cases series.

© 2016 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College
Published by Harvard Family Research Project